THE JINRIKISHA
Adalia Kelly 2429682
The Jinrikisha was well known as a common traditional transportation in some countries around the world. Jinrikisha means “human-powered vehicle”, transportation consisted of a two-wheeled cart and seats that was occupied by two passengers and ran by a single person. In some countries within Asia, jinrikisha became known as a rickshaw, which was used by people with high social status and wealth. In Japan, jinrikisha was a common use of transportation. During that time the use of humans was cheaper compared to animals.
Jonathan Goble was a missionary from Wayne, Europe, and the creator of the jinrikisha. Jonathan originally invented the Jinrikisha for his wife, Eliza Weeks, who was ill and felt uncomfortable using the sedan chair to travel. He requested personally to Frank Pollay to make him a small car that looked similar to a baby carriage, its purpose was to allow his wife to travel through the crowded street of Yokohama without any discomfort.
The Jinrikisha has become prominent mode of transport in most of the countries. Particularly in Asian countries, as it was modeled to be the perfect type of transportation to travel through busy streets or carry large amounts of goods and materials to other places. The Jinrikisha was purely Japanese vehicle and it was imported to China in 1874. It became the most commonly used transportation for people in China. Furthermore in 1949, China became a communist country under Chairman Mao and believed that the jinrikisha is going to give a wrong message to his people and banned the use of jinrikisha in the country.
Western countries such as United States, had found the concept of the Jinrikisha as unusual. They could not come to an agreement with the way the jinrikisha works. For western countries, the idea of putting a man to walk/run to pull the jinrikisha is unpleasant. The western people had concluded while taking into account for the weather condition and street life, it is inhumane to allow a person to pull a Jinrikisha and be considered as work to provide for their families. Within these particular reasons, they combined jinrikisha with technology, which revolutionize it into a more modern and comfortable vehicle to travel and use.
The Jinrikisha is portrayed differently in each country by their appearance, use of technology and method to power the Jinrikisha. Some of the jinrikisha can reflect the culture of a country. Western countries were more modernized and incorporated the use of technology and had a high-class appearance compared to Asian countries, which had a traditional approach. Not all Jinrikishas requires a human being to power it, instead a machine is used. Machined powered Jinrikisha is different to those found in Asian countries, which still uses manpower to control the jinrikisha. In some countries, they combine the bicycle with a jinrikisha.
A life as a person pulling a jinrikisha is difficult and most of these workers are usually poor. They run and carry the jinrikisha all day, with low payment. For some of them, jinrikisha is their life, their place to sleep, eat also their work. The jinrikisha is very important to some of these workers, as it becomes their primary source of income and main way to provide for their family. The owner of jinrikisha itself takes half of the income from the runner.
The average speed for jinrikisha runner was 8 km/h and they usually ran for 32 until 48 km every day. They cannot decide what type of costumer they want, or which way they are going to use. They also choose to live on the street or on their jinrikisha. Within these aspects, most the runner suffered from lung and heart diseases.
New technology can also give a negative effect to jinrikisha and their runner. New types of transportations can lead to the runner losing their job. The Government is also trying to reduce the number of jinrikisha in the country, and make the jinrikisha obsolete. By shortening the number of jinrikisha, Runners who pull the jinrikisha will no longer have a job and unable to support their families. This can add to the increasing number of people living in poverty. Calcutta, which is located India is the only place where jinrikisha is still commonly used. People in Calcutta rely on jinrikisha, and become their main job and income. Most of the runners are come from Bihar, the poorest area in India. According to Eide, the runners from Bihar travel to Calcutta and share a room with other room to save up money for them to send back home (Eide, 1993)
Different from Calcutta, western countries and some Asian countries use jinrikisha for tourism. In small area in Japan, tourist could find Jinrikisha and the runner will also tell them the history of Japan or about the jinrikisha itself. This is also occurring in other country such as Sydney, Malaysia, China, etc.

Reference:
Gleason.A, 1990, ‘The Story of Jirinkisha’, The Crooked Lake Review, viewed 16 June 2011, <http://www.crookedlakereview.com/articles/1_33/28july1990/28wisbey.htm>
2005, ‘Rickshaw’, Shanghai Rickshaw, viewed 17 June 2011, <http://www.shanghairickshaw.com/history.html>
Fukushima. M,. Tsunai. M, ‘Jinrikisha: Ride into the Past’, Learning about Tokyo, viewed 21 July 2011, <http://www.kyopro.kufs.ac.jp/dp/dp01.nsf/b7eb328e75d9627a49256feb00103b33/8161bb260e60ce324925731b000fa15a!OpenDocument>
‘History of Japan: A guide to Japan’s past and present’, viewed 16 July 2011, <http://www.historyofjapanguide.com/things-japanese-099.htm>
Driscoll.T, 1891, ‘Jinrikisha days in Japan’, viewed 5 July 2011, <http://www.archive.org/stream/jinrikishadaysin00scidiala/jinrikishadaysin00scidiala_djvu.txt>
Geens. E, 2010,’The History of the Rickshaw- Exploitation or Tradition?’, viewed 1 July 2011, < http://newhistories.group.shef.ac.uk/wordpress/wordpress/?p=2135 >
‘Solar Panels On The Roof Of A Tuc Tuc’, viewed 7 July 2011, <http://www.123rf.com/photo_6492684_solar-panels-on-the-roof-of-a-tuc-tuc-parked-on-the-autumn-leafs-in-a-park.html>