Japanese Maps Project<\/p>
Erica Baffelli<\/p>" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Japan" }, { "label": "Alternative Title(s)", "value": "改正日本輿地路程全図; Shinkoku Nihon yochi rotei zenzu; 新刻日本輿地路程全図; Translated title: Revised complete route map of Japan" }, { "label": "Cartographer(s)", "value": "Nagakubo, Sekisui, 1717-1801 長久保, 赤水" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "The John Rylands Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "Map height: 710 mm, width: 1014 mm. Folded height: 236 mm, width: 162 mm." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "Japanese 123" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Early maps--Japan; Japan--1700-1790; Japan--Maps; Cartography--Japan--History--Maps; Tokugawa period, Japan, 1600-1868; Edo period, Japan, 1600-1868; Japan" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "
Map of Japan, in Japanese, by the Confucian scholar Nagakubo Sekisui (1717-1801). This map introduced a number of structural and iconographical novelties in the cartography of Japan, and was extremely influential in subsequent representations of the archipelago, above all in Europe. It reported an unprecedented number and variety of place-names. It included European compass roses and Bourbon fleur-de-lis, and showed longitude and latitude, with Kyoto as datum point (but only reported numerical information about latitude, going from 42 degrees North to 30 degrees North). At the time of its first edition, it was the first printed map of Japan to use a grid of latitude and longitude and a fixed scale. Even if the map was based on previous sources and not on a survey, this emphasis on spatial accuracy was inspired by Western standards, and related with Nagakubo Sekisui\u2019s scholarly background (and, particularly, his involvement in Rangaku, or Dutch Studies). <\/p>
The title is reported in a mounted cover label. The map lacks a colophon, but the preface by Shibano Ritsuzan (1736-1787) is dated Tenpō 4 (1775). Japanese 121 is a later edition of the same map. The preface also reports the alternative title \"Shinkoku Nihon yochi rotei zenzu\" (Newly engraved complete route map of Japan). In the bottom centre section of the map, a legend, coupled with explanatory notes, illustrates the symbols (and colours) used for provincial names, district names, castles, administrative headquarters, famous places, and other elements featured on the map. Other text by the author includes information about land routes, sea routes and their distances, and the Kuroshio Current. <\/p>
The map is oriented with north to the upper right. It is a wood block print, with relief shown pictorially (even if the pictorial elements are less prominent than in earlier maps), and uses colours to differentiate provinces. It is a single sheet folded into original titled covers. It covers the area from Matsumae to Tsushima, and Okinoerabujima. Cover description: gloss orange embossed paper and flexible cover board; in the front, mounted cover title, in Japanese, text black on white labels (one with Library's call no.: Japanese 123); in the back, mounted bookplate of Biblioteca Lindesiana (at the base of the bookplate in pencil is the notation: \"16/B\"). <\/p>" }, { "label": "Bibliography", "value": "