[1] During the Edo period the Tokugawa shogunate established ichirizuka on major roads, enabling calculation both of distance travelled and of the charge for transportation by kago or palanquin.

[2] These mounds denoted the distance in ri (3.927 kilometres (2.440 mi)), typically to Nihonbashi, the "Bridge of Japan", erected in Edo in 1603.

Since the Meiji period, most of the ichirizuka have disappeared, having been destroyed by the elements, modern highway construction and urban encroachment.

In the case of the Magane Ichirizuka, the mounds flank the San'yōdō highway which ran for a total of roughly 145 ri (approx.

The San'yōdō was one of the major kaidō in western Japan and was the main route both for commercial travelers, but for daimyō fulfilling their sankin kōtai obligation to have to the Shōgun's court in Edo on alternate years.