Fall 2026 Colloquium - Kate McDonald
History, UC Santa Barbara
Title: The Rickshaw in Twentieth-Century Japan: A User’s Manual
Abstract: The rickshaw was invented in Japan in 1869. Rickshaw pulling flourished as an occupation and rickshaws dominated cultural representations of Japan’s urban modernity. Though it declined in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, the rickshaw was quickly reinvented as a popular – and flexible – cultural symbol. Drawing from my current book project, The Rickshaw and the Railroad: Transportation, Labor, and Technology in Modern Japan, I share my favorite rickshaw stories from twentieth-century Japan. Along the way, I show how the multi-faceted history of the rickshaw raises important questions about how historians conceptualize the “user” of transportation technologies.
Abstract: The rickshaw was invented in Japan in 1869. Rickshaw pulling flourished as an occupation and rickshaws dominated cultural representations of Japan’s urban modernity. Though it declined in popularity in the 1930s and 1940s, the rickshaw was quickly reinvented as a popular – and flexible – cultural symbol. Drawing from my current book project, The Rickshaw and the Railroad: Transportation, Labor, and Technology in Modern Japan, I share my favorite rickshaw stories from twentieth-century Japan. Along the way, I show how the multi-faceted history of the rickshaw raises important questions about how historians conceptualize the “user” of transportation technologies.
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