Since his days at the Philosophy Academy Enryō had an interest in the rural, mountain, and fishing villages that had been left behind as the cities modernized. Without the revitalization of the countryside Japan would not be able to catch up with the West. In order to im-prove the strength of a country and its people there needed to be a change in people’s consciousness and way of life. They needed to understand, for example, the idea that time is money. Thus, Enryō tried to sow the seeds for this sort of education in local communities through his lectures. Incidentally, it was the development of trans-portation systems that made it possible for Enryō to travel around the country. Let’s take a look at what transportation was like in Japan a hundred years ago. The construction of a railway system began with the line between Shimbashi and Yokohama in 1872. Next was the line between Kōbe and Ōsaka in 1874. The laborious work on the Ōsaka-Kyoto line was advanced following that, but after the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 construction work was done between Kyoto-Ōtsu and Tsuruga-Ōgaki, and the Shimbashi-Kōbe line was completed in 1889. This is known as the Tōkaidō Main Line. During this period the construc-tion of railways funded by private capital also began, but in 1892 the Railway Construction Act was officially announced, making it a na-tional project. Thus, by 1900 we see the completion of a full national railroad network running through the whole Japanese archipelago from Asahikawa in Hokkaidō in the north to Kumamoto in Kyūshū in the south. Transport Infrastructure as the Basis for Nationwide Lecture Tours 160
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