Entirely Fabricated 
Nº 25 · On Tracks · Filed 5 June 2024
The Shogun Shuttle
A bullet train adorned with samurai armor, shuttling feudal lords across Edo-period Japan.
As recorded by the FakeHistory Bureau · 1 min read
Connected Facts
The real history behind the joke
Every story on this page is invented. Every link below is not.
- 01
Tokaido Shinkansen · Wikipedia — The real shogun shuttle opened on 1 October 1964, nine days before the Tokyo Olympics, running 515.4 km from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka. Average delay per train in a recent year: 1.4 minutes, weather included.
- 02
Sankin-kotai · Wikipedia — Feudal lords genuinely did commute to Edo: the Tokugawa shogunate made alternate attendance compulsory for the outer daimyo in 1635 and the rest in 1642, and it ran until 1862. With hundreds of lords coming and going, processions were an almost daily sight in the capital, the retinue sized to the domain's assessed yield.
- 03
Tokaido (road) · Wikipedia — The 514 km highway from Edo to Kyoto had 53 post stations, and the walk took about a week in good weather or up to a month in bad. The Shinkansen now follows the same corridor in 2 hours 21 minutes.
- 04
History of rail transport in Japan · Wikipedia — There was no iron dragon under the shoguns: Japan's first railway opened on 14 October 1872 between Shimbashi and Yokohama, four years after the Meiji Restoration ended shogunal rule. Fifty-three minutes each way, nine round trips a day.
- 05
The Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido · Wikipedia — Hiroshige travelled the Tokaido in 1832 with an official delegation carrying the shogun's annual gift of horses to the imperial court. His prints — 53 stations plus Nihonbashi and Kyoto, Mount Fuji recurring on the horizon — are why we picture this road the way we do.
