Tenma

Japanese: 伝馬 (tenma)

Tenmayaku were people based at Edo period post-stations who oversaw the supply and provision of porters and post-horses. Each post-station along the Tôkaidô was obliged to keep one hundred men and one hundred horses available at any given time for the use of elite travelers.

The prestigious position of tenmayaku was assigned to households in a given town according to the size of their home or their personal kokudaka. The actual division of labor, in which individual porters were called upon to carry particular pieces of luggage for particular travelers, was determined at a site known as a toiyaba 問屋場. If Futagawa-juku post-station can be taken as a representative case, it had one toiyaba in town, and one in the neighboring "additional post-station" town of Kashuku Ôiwa; two alternated being open and active once every two days.

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References

Gallery labels, Futagawa-juku honjin shiryôkan.[1]