https://the-public-domain-review.imgix.net/collections/herbe... were the freeways of their day: public works projects (the trees provided shade, and a slight windbreak, for travellers) that also looked impressive when viewed from the fields of areas they passed through.
Maybe when those roads were made, but, in the era of the photos, things were relatively modern. They had paved roads and telephone poles. Cars, motorcycles and airplanes came into the picture right at the very end of the Meiji era.
This one is from Nikko, which, even then, was a getaway from the big city. It shows some of the civil infrastructure in an ostensibly rural area:
Actually, it's almost always the red paint that's the most clearly manually done, I wonder what made the blue/green/yellow easier, maybe just because they're more subtle
Though beautiful in places, and certainly fascinating, I'd like to mention the oft-overlooked fact that this documents quite a lot of people's bloody hard lives. I think it's important to recognise and appreciate our own good fortune in comparison to others'.
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