The Tokaido is a 500 km walk from Tokyo to Kyoto over several days. But it might also be a three-hour train journey with a box lunch, a can of beer, and a small container of ice cream. Or it might be sublime infrastructure, like Roman roads or the interstate highway system.
The route has existed for a long time. It was turned into a road in the Edo period by laying cobblestones, lining it with pine trees (which protect travelers from the sun and wind), building mile markers, and establishing post towns or stations. Then it became the route of the first railway line linking major cities in east and west Japan, the National Route 1 highway, and the route of the Tokaido Shinkansen, the “bullet train” most tourists likely know as the connection between Tokyo and Kyoto or Osaka.
Many people of all kinds have travelled this route over hundreds of years. Some famous travelers I would like to mention are Basho who wrote poems and described scenes from his travels, Hiroshige who drew woodblock prints of all the 53 stations, and Kaempfer who managed to observe it in detail on his visit to Japan during the period in which the country was closed to foreigners.
The Tokaido is not really organized as a walking route by a central authority, even though you can buy a guidebook with a detailed map. Instead, it is a series of sidewalks, roads, trails, bridges, and towns that are connected, and together with residents and travelers, materialize the shared idea we have of the Tokaido. Some sections are just roads with ordinary houses and shops, but others have monuments, murals, signs with historical information, rows of pine trees, newly-laid cobblestones, or little signs displayed by people who live there.
I think this must be one of the more accessible long-distance walking routes in Japan. There are fewer towns with lodging than in the Edo period, but they are never impractically far apart. It’s well served by public transportation. And it’s possible to walk unsupported (that is, without relying on other forms of transportation) and without special equipment like a tent.
Links
Wikipedia: 53 Stations of the Tōkaidō
Roaming Wild Rosie: Old Tokaido Highway
東海道53次ウォーク (Tōkaidō 53 Stations Walk)
Suit Travel: 自転車で東海道五十三次の旅シリーズ (53 Stations of the Tōkaidō Bicycling Trip Series)
電子足跡:旧東海道 歩き旅 (Electronic Footprints: Old Tōkaidō Walking Trip)
Books
Meredith McKinney (Translator), Travels with a Writing Brush: Classical Japanese Travel Writing from the Manyoshu to Basho. ISBN: 9780241310878
Philippe Delord, Hiroshige’s Japan: On the Trail of the Great Woodblock Print Master — A Modern-day Artist’s Journey on the Old Tokaido Road. ISBN: 4805316292
Patrick Carey, Rediscovering the Old Tokaido: In the Footsteps of Hiroshige. ISBN: 9781901903102
Japanese-Language Guidebooks
八木 牧夫, ちゃんと歩ける東海道五十三次. ISBN: 4635600866 (East section), 4635600874 (West section)
歩いて旅する東海道. ISBN: 4635601099