FOOD BLOG: Lodgings (hatago)

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Lodgings, inn (hatago)

***** Location: Japan
***** Season: Topic
***** Category: Humanity

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Explanation

Hatago (旅籠, 旅篭)
were Edo period lodgings for travelers at shukuba (post stations) along the national highways, including the Edo Five Routes and the subroutes. In addition to a place to rest, hatago also offered meals and other foods to the travelers.
They were also called hatagoya (旅籠屋).

Hatago means "traveling basket."
The word itself originally derived from baskets that contained food for horses and were carried by travelers. From there, it became a tool with which travelers were carry their own food and goods. Shops that began preparing and selling food for travelers gained the suffix ya (屋), meaning "shop," but this was eventually shortened to just hatago.

Because many post stations along the Tōkaidō, Nakasendō and other historical routes have been either preserved or rebuilt, there are many traditional hatago still in existence today. While some have only been preserved as public buildings and museums, others have continued to operate for the past few hundred years.
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CLICK for original LINK, kkubota.cool.ne.jp

Tokaido, Akasaka by Hiroshige

meshimori hatago 飯盛旅籠（めしもりはたご)
lodgings serving food (and women)

Travellers could ask for food being brought by women who would serve them "anything".

A good traveller would walk about 40 kilometers (10 ri 里), a woman made about 30 kilometers (8 ri).

Tokaido, Goyu 御油(ごゆ) by Toyokuni

Goyu was about 298 km from Edo and 195 km close to Kyoto. Now it is in Toyokawa.

Of course reservations could not be made in the Edo period. Travellers arrived at any time and stopped when they got tired of walking.
A licensed hatago would provide two meals, breakfast and evening meal.

Other lodgings (yadoya, yado 宿屋) more popular with the poor travelelrs would only provide the firewood for self-cooking (kichinyado, kichin yado 木賃宿).
The cost was about 3000 yen (300 mon) for a hatago. A yado would charge about 500 yen (50 mon).

Travellers would often have to share a simple room with others.

When entering a hatago, travellers could wash their feet in a wooden basin (tarai たらい) and sometimes a woman servant would carry their luggage up to a room.

Some hatago would provide local delicacies to entertain the travellers with food and local sake. Some where quite famous for this, for example in Odawara they served kamaboko fish paste.
One meal consisted of a pot of soup, two sidedishes of vegetables and rice 一汁二菜. The price varied with the quality of the food.

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Tokaido, Hiratsuka, by Hiroshige

Hiratsuka is still quite close to Edo, only about 60 kilometers on the road. It was a stop at the crossing of river Banyuugawa 馬入川, now Sagamigawa.
For a slow traveller, Hiratsuka was the second stop-over on the trip.

Here you can see the servants carrying trays with food. The smaller girl carries the pot with cooked rice (meshibitsu 飯櫃).
On the tray there are a bowl of soup, a bowl for rice, a plate with a fish (fried or boiled fish was common), a covered bowl with cooked vegetables (sometimes even lily roots or yuba soy skin, shiitake mushrooms) and a small plate with pickled vegetables.
This is quite a delicious evening meal. Fish was not served in the morning.

. Reference : 旅籠 in 江戸 .

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Worldwide use

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Things found on the way

Modern Hatago and Food 旅籠料理

. . . CLICK here for Photos !

ryokan 旅館 Japanese inn

Many ryokan take great pride in a long history of "motenashi no kokoro" おもてなしのこころ, entertaining the guests with utmost care.

honjin 本陣 feudal lord's lodging in the Edo period
... waki honjin 脇本陣

hoteru ホテル hotel

minshuku みんしゅく【民宿】simple guesthouse, bed and breakfast,
a private home providing meals and lodging (for tourists)

shukubo, shukuboo 宿坊 lodging in a temple

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HAIKU and SENRYU

かすむ日や大旅籠屋のうらの松
kasumu hi ya oohatagoya no ura no matsu

misty day--
behind the big inn
a pine

Kobayashi Issa
(Tr. David Lanoue)

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時の日や昔旅籠の掛時計　
toki no hi ya mukashi hatago no kakedokei

time memorial day -
this wall clock
in the old inn

Sankei 山渓