Japanese Maps : Kyō ōezu

Japanese Maps

<p style='text-align: justify;'> Map of Kyoto, in Japanese. The title is reported in a mounted cover label, with the subtitle "Shinsen zōho" (Newly compiled and enlarged). A colophon, in the lower central section, reports Kyō (Kyoto) as place of publication (see notes section on the different names for Kyoto) and Hayashi-shi Yoshinaga (Yoshinaga of the Hayashi family) as publisher, but no publication date. The map was first published in the Kyōhō era (1716-36). </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> This copy was printed in the years 1728-34 (based on information included in the map, and particularly on the name of the Kyoto shoshidai, or Kyoto deputy), with revisions to the original blocks. Since 1686, Hayashi Yoshinaga published several editions of Kyoto maps titled "Shinsen zōho Kyō ōezu", all typically shaped with the North-South direction longer than the East-West one, all not adhering to an exact scale, and all meant as guides to sightseeing in Kyoto. They are representative of the cartography of Kyoto in the mid-Edo period, and were greatly influential for other maps of the city. They introduced new graphic conventions (older maps tended, for example, to fill sections of the city in black ink, a feature absent in most of Hayashi’s maps), and new textual content, including detailed annotations about temples, shrines and other famous places, and catalogues of house names associated with family crests. </p><p style='text-align: justify;'> This map covers all of Kyoto (the area known as Rakuchū), as well as some of its surrounding hills (the area known as Rakugai), with relief shown pictorially, in a fashion that became typical for Kyoto maps in the second half of the 17th century, as the city and its outskirts, with their temples and shrines, historical sites, and other famous places, became popular travel destinations. It is oriented with north to the top (if the colophon is used as reference). It includes a chart with distances (calculated from the Sanjo area) and an index of places. It is a wood block print, in black and white, a single sheet folded into original titled covers. Cover description: dark blue flexible cover board; in the front, mounted cover title in Japanese, text black on beige and white labels (one with Library's call no.: Japanese 82) and inscription 'A PLAN of MEACO the residence of the ECCLESIASTICAL EMPEROR of Japan'; in the back, mounted bookplate of Biblioteca Lindesiana (at the base of the bookplate in pencil is the notation: "16/B"). </p>