This reconstruction explains how the checkpoints put in place by the Tokugawa shogunate functioned during the Edo period. Hakone checkpoint, established in 1619, was the first of the 53 staging posts along the East Sea Road between Edo and Kyoto. Besides being there to monitor the flow of men and arms and to tax goods, the checkpoints were also intended to prevent women from leaving Edo. This allowed the shogun to exert pressure on his vassals, who were obliged to leave their families in the residence set up just outside the capital.