Toshizo Hijikata’s Manhole Card from Hino City, Explained

Toshizo Hijikata Hino City Manhole Card — Code 13-212-A001

Japan’s Official Manhole Card Series

Japan’s Manhole Card series is one of the country’s most quietly ambitious collectible programs. Launched in April 2016 and managed by the General Incorporated Association Sewerage Public Relations Platform — known by its abbreviation GKP — the series pairs each card with a real, artistically designed manhole cover installed somewhere across Japan. Each card carries a photograph of that cover, the GPS coordinates of its exact location, and a municipal identification code. This card’s code, 13-212-A001, breaks down as follows: “13” for Tokyo Prefecture, “212” for Hino City’s internal GKP identifier, and “A001” marking it as the first card issued for Hino City. The series has expanded steadily over the years, with hundreds of cards now spanning municipalities nationwide, making it one of Japan’s largest officially coordinated collectible programs.

What makes the series structurally unusual is how cards are obtained. They are not sold — each is distributed free, one per person, only at designated collection points. To receive this card through official channels, a visitor must travel in person to the distribution site in Hino City. That requirement creates a natural ceiling on how many copies circulate, since every card represents an actual trip to that place. The back of each card prints the precise coordinates of the corresponding manhole cover, reinforcing the series’ core philosophy: walk the city, earn the card.

Toshizo Hijikata and the Shinsengumi

The manhole cover depicted on this card carries a black-and-white portrait of Toshizo Hijikata (1835–1869), rendered in a stippled, engraving-like style against a textured background. Hijikata is one of the most recognizable figures of Japan’s Bakumatsu era — the turbulent final years of the Edo shogunate. He served as vice-commander of the Shinsengumi, a swordsman corps that maintained order in Kyoto during the 1860s on behalf of the Tokugawa government. Known by the epithet “Demon Vice-Commander,” he was the unit’s de facto operational leader and is widely credited as the architect of its famously strict internal discipline. He died in battle at 34 during the Hakodate War of 1868–1869, the last stand of the pro-shogunate forces.

His connection to Hino City is direct: he was born in what is now the Ishida district of Hino, in the former Musashi Province. The city actively promotes that heritage through local museums, monuments, and civic programming. This particular cover is classified as a rainwater drainage cover — a distinction noted on the card — and was designed and installed as part of Hino City’s broader cultural tourism effort. The card is an officially issued item, jointly produced by GKP and Hino City, with no authorized reproductions.

The Shinsengumi’s International Reach

The Shinsengumi occupy a singular place in Japanese pop culture, and their story has traveled well beyond Japan. Anime, manga, and video games have introduced the group — and Hijikata in particular — to audiences worldwide over several decades, building a substantial international fanbase that knows the names and personalities of its key figures well.

For collectors living outside Japan, a card like this one presents a specific logistical challenge. The official distribution system has no postal or online option — a physical visit to the Hino City collection point is required. Combined with the one-card-per-person rule, that geographical barrier means copies reaching international hands represent genuine effort to obtain. The card’s “place-locked” structure, where a single printed code corresponds to one specific manhole cover at one set of coordinates anywhere on Earth, is a quality found in few other collectible formats.