Research travel guides that are no longer practical, and add strange knowledge of travel history to you: I read I read Omuta Tetsuhiko's "Travel ガイドブックから読み賳く: Meiji, Taisho, Showa Japanese のアジア観光" (Part 1)

Tetsuhiko Omuta, an expert in the history of railways and transportation, used the travel documents, newspapers, publications of transportation companies, and travelogues of people of the time issued during the imperial Japan period to comb through Japan's activities in Taiwan, Korea, Manchuria, and Taiwan before and during the war. Nan Huatai, with the development and tourism of "outside" railways in central and northern China, published the book "Overseas Railways of the Empire of Japan" in 2015.

Taking two speeches in the 1920s on the history of travel in Asia and the travel to China seen in the Japanese travel case as an opportunity, it was in 2019 to write this "Travel ガイドブックから読み Solution: Meiji, Taisho, Showa Japanese のThe origin of "Aja Travel". The author continued to use some materials used in writing the book "Imperial Overseas Railways", and added post-war clues, extending the time series to the end of the 20th century, and the space to Asia, with the theme of travel cases, for today's Japanese, Introducing the history of travel from the Empire of Japan to Japan.

Texts such as the Guidebook are not a product of the modern tourism industry. In the 19th century, the British publisher John Murray, and Karl Baedeker of Prussia, compiled and printed the British and Continental Travel Manual (then called Handbook). Before group travel and founding Travelex (Thomas Cook and Son).

Since the mid-Edo period, the travel style of "Ise Visiting Shrine" and "Tangji", which is actually "Momami Tour", became popular. The records recorded the distance of the accommodation, the cost of accommodation, the means of transportation, and the famous places and local products in the "Dozhongji". ' came into being. In the late Meiji period, Imperial Japan not only actively deployed various transportation, accommodation and other environments to attract foreigners to Japan, but also encouraged some Chinese to go to the "foreign places" ruled/controlled by the Empire, or to travel abroad in a wider area.

With the birth and development of modern Japan's tourism industry, various government and private units have published under the names of "case", "journey and cost estimates", etc., and are constantly updated in new editions of the travel brochures. Information such as itinerary, tickets, tourist attractions, shopping, etc., all leave clues for the historical changes of the Asian journey that the Japanese have gone through.

For Japanese during the imperial period, possession and use of what is now called "パスポート" in Japanese was not a requirement for legal entry or exit. In travel brochures, the "travel vouchers", "travel vouchers", "passports" and "travel exemption certificates" mentioned in the travel brochures often do not refer to the same travel document.

For example, Taiwanese during the Japanese occupation period, leaving the island to travel to areas under the rule/control of the empire, or other countries, must apply for and hold "travel vouchers", similar to the current "パスポート", but in the context of the travel manual The "travel voucher" is not always the case, and it may sometimes be similar to the "visa" (VISA).

The "passport" at that time usually refers to the travel documents issued by China to foreigners traveling to the mainland, which can provide travel documents that the local government sends personnel to protect along the way. The concept, nature and substance of the "passport" are not connected. As for "travel coupons", they mostly refer to the transportation coupons issued by ferries and railway companies. They also have the effect of inbound and outbound travel documents in specific land and sea transportation lines and areas (such as along the Nanman Railway and its affiliated areas).

The names and types of valid travel documents are complex, and the issuance window of the multi-headed carriage is due to the fact that the European, American and Japanese powers have intricate extraterritorial rights and spheres of influence/rights in China, and the internal regime split and separatist forces in the early Republic of China.

At the end of the Meiji era, many Japanese did not hold travel documents issued by their own diplomatic offices, and it became a fact that they sailed to China by ferry. In 1918, Japan and China established a reciprocal agreement that allows people to travel between the two countries without a license.

Before World War II, the convenience of traveling to China without a license was the norm for the Japanese, and the same was true of Manchukuo, which was established in Japan, and North China, which was controlled by the establishment of a pro-Japanese regime during the war. However, this does not apply to all populations ruled by the empire, such as Koreans and Taiwanese are excluded.

The Empire spared no effort to build a more convenient travel circle in Asia, such as issuing transportation coupons for various group tours; developing hot spring towns, new famous places, and modern tourist hotels; and the tourist brochures are also updated year by year. However, compared with the tourist population before the new crown epidemic, overseas tourism during the imperial period was still an affordable activity for middle- and upper-class Japanese.

In Taiwan during the Japanese occupation era, schools at all levels gradually implemented a school travel system capable of cultivating imperial identity. Traveling to mainland Japan, or Manchuria, South China, and Southeast Asia, such long distances may last for more than two weeks. For study trips, even with the mechanism of school grants and travel funds, not all students can afford the travel expenses.

During the Taisho Showa period, the "Journey and Expense Estimates" issued by the predecessor of the now well-known "Japan Tourist Bureau" (JTB), then called "Japan Travel Association", and updated year by year. A guidebook for readers planning economic travel routes. Each copy costs about 5 yen, which is about one-twentieth of the monthly salary of the average salary of 100 yuan in Tokyo.

If you want to follow the route in "Journey and Cost Estimates", take a trip around Taiwan with a duration of about 20 days, but with the most economical travel expenses, and travel around Wushe, Sun Moon Lake, Alishan, Hualien, Jiaoxi and Beitou. Hot springs, as well as Beiji, Taichung and Fucheng, also cost at least 140 to 180 yen. For Japanese office workers with a monthly salary of 100 yuan, even if there is no rental cost, they have to eat and drink for at least two months to save money for a trip to Taiwan.

In Japan before the end of World War II, the popularity of travel brochure readers and overseas tourist groups was actually far from the trend before the epidemic when low-cost airlines flew all over the sky and people traveled abroad several times a year.

(to be continued)

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