Which claim is supported by evidence in the passage below?* The Tokugawa shogunate realized the importance of maintaining contact with distant provinces
within Japan. The Tokaido was its most important highway.
... Perhaps the most crucial use of the road was forogovernmental communication with the
provinces. Official messengers traveled by foot, horseback (in wartime), and palanquin (a seat,
usually for the wealthy, carried by other people). The government used a system of relays for
messengers, with reliefs at every seven li (3.9 km). Government messengers had priority over
any other type of traveler. They had first access to ferries at river crossings along the way, and
could freely pass government road barriers at all times of the day or night. Private citizens
were not allowed to travel at night; a series of barriers and checkpoints along the road kept
them from doing so
Source: Patricia J. Graham, "The Political and Economic Importance of the Tokaido," Tokaido:
Adventures on the Road in Old Japan, University of Kansas Spencer Museum of Art (adapted)
from the NYS Global History and Geography Regents Exam, January 2012