page_title: Litter (vehicle)
section_title: Japan
hierarchical_section_title: Litter (vehicle) / In Asia / Japan
caption_attribution_description: Kumagai on the Kisokaido, ukiyo-e prints by Keisai Eisen
context_page_description: The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles, a type of human-powered transport, for the transport of persons. Smaller litters may take the form of open chairs or beds carried by two or more carriers, some being enclosed for protection from the elements. Larger litters, for example those of the Chinese emperors, may resemble small rooms upon a platform borne upon the shoulders of a dozen or more people. To most efficiently carry a litter, porters either place the carrying poles directly upon their shoulders or use a yoke to transfer the load from the carrying poles to the shoulders.
context_section_description: As the population of Japan increased and less and less land remained available for the grazing of animals, restrictions were placed upon the use of horses for non-military purposes, with the result that human-powered transport grew increasingly important and eventually came to prevail.
  Kago (Kanji: 駕籠, Hiragana: かご) were often used in Japan to transport the non-samurai citizen. Norimono were used by the warrior class and nobility, most famously during the Tokugawa period when regional samurai were required to spend a part of the year in Edo (Tokyo) with their families, resulting in yearly migrations of the rich and powerful (Sankin-kōtai) to and from the capital along the central backbone road of Japan.
  Somewhat similar in appearance to kago are the portable shrines that are used to carry the "god-body" (goshintai), the central totemic core normally found in the most sacred area of Shinto Shrines, on a tour to and from a shrine during some religious festivals.
caption: A kago in a print by Keisai Eisen from The Sixty-nine Stations of the Kiso Kaidō
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