What is your favourite period in Japanese history ?

[Hiroshi66]

Well - it seems that the Rickshaw is used to carry people while the Riaka is used in more rural societies to carry things.

[lexico]

Well - it seems that the Rickshaw is used to carry people while the Riaka is used in more rural societies to carry things.

I believe that would be a correct distinction between the two. And as you may have noticed, they share basically the same mechanical structure and principle. Which is why I suspect the old-fashioned, wooden KURUMA became redisgned with Western materials and was restyled RIAKA.

Or reversely, maybe the two-wheeled Western trailer became adapted to Japan competing with the KURUMA, and won out over the KURUMA, or absorbed it.

The RIKISHA may have been a hybrid of the Western horse carriage and the Japanese KURUMA.

The isolated facts are there, but I still need concrete evidence to support any kind of thesis regarding the actual evolutionary stages. There should be someone in Japan who did a study on it. I might have to use translators and dig some more. I'll post new findings in the original thread.

Thanks, Hiroshi66 san, for keeping the discussion going.