Japanese Maps : Dainihon yochi benran

Yamazaki, Yoshimoto, 1756-1841 山崎, 義故

Japanese Maps

<p style='text-align: justify;'> Wood-block printed atlas of Japan, in Japanese, including 70 maps in 2 volumes. The atlas opens with a map of the whole country, followed by individual and detailed provincial maps (starting with Yamashiro), and by a map of the world with Japan at its center. The title is reported both in a mounted cover label and in the preface (in volume 1). Both the preface (volume 1) and the postface (volume 2) report the date Tenpō 5 (1834). Both the postface and the text beside the map of Japan report the name of the author, Yamazaki Yoshimoto. The preface mentions Saitō Ken as contributor.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>The maps are all in colour, with some pictorial elements. The map of Japan reports the names of provinces in red blocks, and uses pictorial icons for Mount Fuji (represented pictorially also in some of the provincial maps) and for the city of Edo. Provincial maps mark the districts within them, as well as major cities (sometimes sketchily represented, as in the case of Kyoto in Yamashiro province) and some villages, major routes and other topographical features such as rivers and canals, lakes, mountains. Atlases of this kind became common in the first half of the 19th century, on the wake of the extensive territorial survey of Japan conducted by the cartographer Inō Tadataka (1745-1818) at the beginning of the 19th century. </p>