JINRIKISHA - "Pulled Rickshaw"

Yesterday MAIKO~SAN Clever Plum share with me an inside information that this morning she'll be riding a RICKSHAW with one of her ONEESAN, "older sister". How very kind of her!
The two MAIKO were like kids in Disneyland...

RICKSHAW: It's a tricycle, also known as pedicab or taxi bike.
Albeit RICKSHAW first appeared in Japan around 1868, the inventor still unknown.

There are several theories about the invention of the RICKSHAW. Japan historian Seidensticker wrote of the theories:

"Though the origins of the rickshaw are not entirely clear, they seem to be Japanese, and of Tokyo specifically. The most widely accepted theory offers the name of three inventors, and gives 1869 as the date of invention."


Starting in 1870, the Tokyo government issued a permission for Izumi Yosuke, Takayama Kosuke, and Suzuki Tokujiro to build and sell rickshaws.
By 1872, they became the main mode of transportation in Japan, with about 40,000 rickshaws in service and declined by the 1930s with the advent of automobiles and trains.

Albert Tolman, an American blacksmith, is said to have made the rickshaw around 1848 in Worcester, Massachusetts. Other claims are that Jonathan Scobie, an American missionary to Japan, invented the rickshaw around 1869.

Here is an interesting link for those interested in the history of the RICKSHAW: Virtual Rickshaw Evolution