All around the world, horses were used to transport people and packages. Japan is no exception. Roads in every corner of Japan are now paved and it is very rare to see a horse on a public street.

Up to recent times, horse-drawn carriages were not very used. Opinions vary, but one main reason is that there is little flat land in Japan, while there are plenty of mountains and hills. On top of that, roads are narrow. It would have been more of a trouble to make the horses pull a carriage in poor conditions. Carriages were used just by humans and inside of the city or in flat areas only. In the Edo period, if the work of carrying the cart were given to the horse, workers would have been left without a job. The use of horses was therefore restricted to people and to packages that were put directly onto the horseback.

In modern times, making the horse pull a carriage has become a common use. However, at the same time steam locomotive and automobiles entered our daily lives and with the passing of time developed more and more. In spite of that, until the end of WW2 and more, horses were still used.

Traces of the past can still be seen in Japan today, where riding a horse on a public street is actually not against the law. Horses are regarded as light vehicles in the same way as bicycles and trailers towed by a bicycle. Well, that said, we still need to be careful when a horse is on a public road! If you decide to go on a horse trip, you might as well do that but you will catch everybody’s attention! Or maybe it takes too long to ride a horse?

This last one was a minor consideration about an extra means of transportation.