rickshaw

Rickshaw in service, Tokyo.

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rickshaw, (from Japanese: “human-powered vehicle”), two-wheeled vehicle with a doorless, chairlike body and a collapsible hood, which holds one or two passengers and is drawn by a man between two shafts. It was used widely in the Orient but was largely superseded by the pedicab, a rickshaw driven by bicycle.

The name of its inventor remains uncertain, but it was first used in Japan in the 19th century and is similar to the old French brouette. Many were built in the United States for export by the American carriage builder James H. Birch of Burlington, New Jersey.