9 Beautifully Printed Japanese Cartographic Maps
By studying maps of Japan’s Edo period, we can track the development of geographical knowledge through the country. Fortunately, these maps also happen to be some of the most beautiful, detailed and innovative ever created.
From the Greek words ‘chartis’ meaning map, and ‘graphein’ meaning write, cartography is the art of creating maps to covey spatial information to an audience in an effective, visual manner. A cartographer must not only choose which area to depict, but which traits, physical or otherwise, to be mapped.
Representing the three-dimensional ‘real word’ on a flat medium is far from easy, even with the sophisticated CAD and GIS software available today. In pre-modern Japan, when knowledge of the Earth’s landmasses, let alone technology, was limited at best, it was infinitely more difficult.
Prior to 1543, when Portuguese explorers drifted ashore on Tanegashima Island in Kyusu, bringing with them firearms, Christianity and superior geographical knowledge, the Japanese believed the world to exist solely of Japan, China and India. As witnessed through the incredible Japanese maps below, knowledge spread quickly throughout the country, as false ideas about the Earth’s geography were replaced by more realistic conceptions.
1. Shumisen-gizu: A Representation of Mount Sumeru [Early 19th century]
Image: Rekihaku
Buddhist philosophy teaches of a giant mountain, Mount Sumeru, which stands at the centre of the world, surrounded on all sides by eight, alternating, concentric oceans and mountain ranges. The outermost mountain range, Tecchisen, stands at the edge of the world.
The outermost ocean contains four islands on opposing sides of Mount Sumeru. Nansenbushu, the island shaped like an inverted triangle, to the lower right of Mount Sumeru in the map above, is home to humans.
2. Map of Nansenbushu [Early 19th century]
Image: Rekihaku
Nansenbushu, the human world as perceived through Buddhist philosophy, is limited to the confines of just three countries: India, China and Japan. The inverted triangle shaped island is the Indian subcontinent, with the Himalayas clearly visible at its centre. China is found in the far northeastern corner of the map, and Japan in the eastern sea. Although drafted in the late Edo period, this map and the one above are representative of those created in the 13th century.
3. The Great Map of Ten Thousand Countries [1602]
Image: Wikimedia
Matteo Ricci, a Jesuit missionary, created his Great Map of Ten Thousand Countries by incorporating knowledge acquired during the European Great Age of Navigation into 16th century European maps. The image above is a detail from the Great Map, showing Japan and the surrounding areas. Ricci’s masterpiece was translated into Chinese and published in Peking in 1602. It reached Japan soon afterwards.
4. Kaisei Chikyu Bankoku Zenzu: Revised World Map [Late 18th century]
Image: Rekihaku
Nagakubo Sekisui’s Kaisei Chikyu Bankoku Zenzu, which was widely distributed and ran to many editions, was the most popular of the many maps inspired by Ricci’s work. The map offers a fairly accurate portrayal of the continents, presenting Africa and Europe, which did not feature in maps of Nansenbushu. However, it still contains various inaccuracies, the most striking of which is the inclusion of the fictional content of Magellanica over the South Pole.
5. Chikyu-zu: Map of the Earth [1792]
Image: Rekihaku
A Dutch academic influence, complete with new maps and geographical knowledge, began to take hold of Japan in the mid Edo period, and unsurprisingly, the Japanese began to use Dutch sources in their own cartography. Shiba Kokan’s Chikyu-zu was the first Japanese map with a distinct Dutch influence to be published. The extent of Magellanica is greatly diminished and countries like New Guinea and Australia are included for the first time.
6. Shintei Bankoku Zenzu: Newly Revised World Map [1810]
Image: Rekihaku
This map, created by Takahashi Kageyasu, the government’s chief astronomer and cartographer at the time, also shows a distinct Dutch influence in its design and many similarities can be drawn between this and the example above. The conventional position of the eastern and western hemispheres has been reversed so that Japan can sit at the centre of the world.
7. Dainihon enkai yochi zenzu by Inō Tadataka [1873]
Image: NDL
Inō Tadataka (1745-1818) is by far the most famous and celebrated cartographer in Japanese history. Upon retirement at the age of 49, he began surveying Japan’s entire coastline and parts of its interior in order to make a series of ‘modern’ maps, a task which consumed the remaining 17 years of his life.
His masterpiece, a 1:216,000 map of Japan’s coastline, was presented to the shogunate government in 1821 (3 years after his death). It remained the definitive map of the country for the next 100 years. The image above shows a copy of part of Tadataka’s map.
8. Shinkan Nagasaki no Dzu [1801]
Image: Paulus Swaen
Nagasaki was a major trading port in the 16th and 17th centuries. Woodblock printed maps, such as this one, were given to visitors as a guide to the city. The map would have been used to find foreign trading stations and the anchorages of Dutch and Chinese vessels. The fan-shaped island of Dejima, attached to Nagasaki bay by a bridge, was home to Portuguese and, later, Dutch traders. The rectangular, artificial islands below were used for warehousing goods.
9. Plan of the port and city of Nagasaki [1740]
Image: Paulus Swaen
This is not only the earliest printed map of the port of Nagasaki in existence, but also one of the most detailed. Streets and even individual houses are named, as are Buddhist temples, shrines, rice warehouses and a police station. The map uses seven different colours to denote land ownership and use: grey for land belonging to the feudal lord; yellow for Shimabara land; violet for Omura family land; blue for water, red for roads, dark yellow for rice fields and white for the city centre. This gorgeous piece of cartographical history is for sale and can be yours for a mere $65,000.
About the author:
Tom is a huge tech and gadget geek with a broad range of interests including travel, art and design. Much of his time is spent blogging on CreativeCloud but he also enjoys writing for other blogs in the design niche.
Share your thoughts, leave a comment!
(get your own gravatar)