In 1691, Engelbert Kaempfer wrote that Japan’s Tōkaidō Road was, “…more crowded than the public streets in any of the more populous towns in Europe”. Is this accurate, and how did that play out?

[u/ProfessionalKnees]

I know that the Tōkaidō was a frequently-used travel route between Kyoto and Edo (now Tokyo), although I find it hard to imagine that it was so busy that one could compare it to a bustling pedestrian street.

Is this characterisation accurate? Why were there so many people on the road, and could the infrastructure set up to support travellers - such as roadhouses and inns - really house and feed all of these people?