The Mibu Ichirizuka (壬生一里塚) is a historic Japanese distance marker akin to a milestone, originally comprising a pair of earthen mounds located in what is now part of the town of Mibu, Tochigi Prefecture in the northern Kantō region of Japan.
[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)) 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 Mibu Ichirizuka, the mounds flanked the Nikkō Kaidō (日光街道), and were 23 ri (approximately 90 kilometers) from Nihonbashi.