Chatsubo dochu

• Japanese: 御茶壷道中 (ocha tsubo dôchû)

Ocha tsubo dôchû refers to the dispatching of each year's new batch of tea from Uji (near Kyoto) to Edo in the 4th or 5th month each year during the Edo period.

As the tea-carriers passed through each post-station along the Tôkaidô and the Mino Road, local authorities and inn proprietors cleaned the roads and otherwise prepared for them as they would elite shogunate officials, daimyô. The post-stations were also obliged to provide porters and post-horses.

References

• Kokushitei shiseki Kusatsu-juku honjin, Kusatsu, Shiga: Shiseki Kusatsujuku honjin (2014), 43.