Introduction to Nakasendo Highway: A Journey to the Heart of Japan:
The Nakasendo Highway: A Journey to the Heart of Japan website is the center of a project which takes the Nakasendo highway in Japan as a metaphor through which a wide variety of topics are introduced.
The Nakasendo highway stretched from Kyoto to Edo (modern-day Tokyo), through the center of the main Japanese island of Honshu. As it connects the pre-modern and modern capitals and traverses the central part of the main island, it touches on what might be called some of the "hearts" of Japan.
This project, by Dr. R.T.A. Irving of Kwansei Gakuin University in Sanda, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, and Dr. Thomas A.Stanley, Department of History, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, began as a multimedia CD-ROM project. It has been transferred from that media to the World Wide Web in stages and will ultimately be expanded beyond the CD-ROM presentation, especially in terms of photographs. The project contains some 225 articles of various, usually substantial, lengths (some 130,000 words in total), nearly 200 glossay items (or definitions) and over 300 photographs, maps and illustrations. More photographs will be added at a later time. This website also includes animations and conversations between members of a fictional party who "travelled" the Nakasendo highway. Their conversations introduce clusters of topics which are then expanded on through the main articles which are in turn interactively linked to the glossary items and pictoral material.
A table of contents appears to the left. The various entries there provide the user with a structured means of approaching the Nakasendo Highway: A Journey to the Heart of Japan.
We have no doubt that despite some careful checking, there are mistakes in content and in hyperlinks. If you see a mistake, please inform Tom Stanley by email.
This site's written material is of three main types which are differentiated by color.
- The 225 main topics and clickable maps appear with a yellow woven background. These are richly endowed with links to written and pictoral materials.
- Entries which describe the physical journey, always entitled "The Journey to ... ," appear with a green textured background. These too have links to written and pictoral material.
- Glossary entries, which provide definitions of names and terms, appear with a blue background. These may have links to written or pictoral material.
These colors should help you recognize the nature of the material you are viewing.
We hope you enjoy this site and would particularly appreciate any comments you might have.