Paris had rickshaws called vinaigrettes nearly two centuries before Tokyo
When the first horse-drawn omnibus in Paris stopped running in 1679, the city filled the gap with small enclosed two-wheeled carts for a single rider. People called them vinaigrettes because they looked like the handcarts of vinegar sellers, and usually two men moved them, one pulling in front and one pushing behind.
The vehicle most people picture came much later and apparently independently. Japan had banned wheeled vehicles under the Tokugawa shoguns, and once that ended in 1868 inventors moved quickly. The most accepted story credits Izumi Yosuke, working with two partners, with building the first jinrikisha, meaning human-powered vehicle, in Tokyo in 1869, inspired by the horse carriages that had recently appeared there. Rival claims name an American missionary in Yokohama who wanted to carry his invalid wife, a Massachusetts blacksmith in 1846 and a New Jersey carriage maker in 1867.
The design caught on because one runner could replace the two bearers of a sedan chair, and the Western-style wheels gave a smoother ride. From 1870 Tokyo required anyone operating a rickshaw to get a seal from the three partners. By 1872 around 40,000 were working in Japan, where human labour was far cheaper than horses. A runner typically covered 30 to 50 kilometres a day at about 8 kilometres an hour.
Exports and imitations followed across Asia and beyond. China first saw rickshaws in 1873 and within a year of public service had 10,000; Singapore got them in 1880 and had roughly 50,000 by 1920. Pulling one was grim work, often the first job for rural migrants, and pullers struck in Singapore in 1897 and in Nairobi in 1908. When Canton opened a tramway in 1924, the number of pullers fell from 44,200 to 25,877 within six months.
Pedal power took over. Cycle rickshaws, built in the 1880s, came into regular use in Singapore in 1929, and by the late 1980s about 4 million existed worldwide. In 2023 UNESCO recognised Bangladesh's rickshaws and their painted decoration as intangible cultural heritage.
Source: Rickshaw
