1785 Manuscript Map of East Asia (w/ Dodko or Takeshima, Diaoyu or Senkaku Islands)

A banned and controversial map, this is the is the rarest and most important of the five c. 1785 maps issued by Hayashi Shihei (林子平) in his work Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (三国通覧図說). The present map is a separate issue manuscript of Hayashi's 1785 map, with some minor changes. This example is significant as, despite being an inherently Japanese production, it unambiguously grants the both the disputed Dokdo Islands (Takeshima / Liancourt Rocks) to Korea, and the disputed Diaoyu (Senkaku Islands) to China.

A Closer Look

The map's title roughly translates to 'Overview Map of the Three Kingdoms.' The three kingdoms, in this case, refers to three territories bordering Japan: Yezo (Hokkaido), Korea, and the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa). In modern terms, the map covers from the Sea of Okhotsk and the southern tip of Kamchatka south as far as Taiwan and the Ogasawara Islands, including Japan and Korea, as well as parts of China and Russia.

The use of the phrase 'Three Kingdoms' (Sangoku 三国) has a special resonance in East Asian history, harkening to the 3rd century CE Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, which later served as the setting for the wildly popular 14th century novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms (三國演義), as well as a Three Kingdoms period in Korean history.

A Controversial Map

Hayashi's map is an intrinsically Japanese production, and is as controversial today as when it was first issued, c. 1785 - although for different reasons. Today, it is significant because it includes the disputed Dokdo Islands (Takeshima / Liancourt Rocks) definitively defined as Korean territory (朝鮮之持也). These islands are a current point of diplomatic contention between Japan and South Korea, with both claiming sovereignty by historical precedent. Some earlier maps and other records identify the islands as Japanese, others as Korean. What makes this issue even more complex is that historically the islands were unimportant and not consistently mapped using the same nomenclature. So, while many early maps issued by Korean, Japanese, and foreign publishers do identify the islets, they frequently use different names and it is not always completely clear that the islands shown are in fact the Dokdo / Takeshima / Liancourt archipelago. The fact that Hayashi's map, being essentially Japanese, recognizes Korean sovereignty over the islets has been aggressively leveraged by Korean authorities to buttress their claims. It is worth noting that while the edition of the map published in Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu uses kanji (竹嶋) for Takeshima, the present map uses kana (タケシマ).

Similarly, this map is significant for its apparent inclusion of the Diaoyu or Senkaku Islands, currently disputed between China and Japan, as part of the Qing domain. Compared with the earliest editions of Hayashi's map, these disputed islands northeast of Taiwan are presented somewhat differently here and one of them is named, albeit with a partially obscured, unconventional name (ケイロウ山 or ケイユウ山). The Diaoyu / Senkaku dispute has many similarities with the Dokdo / Takeshima dispute and is perhaps more volatile given the regular presence of Chinese and Japanese military forces around the island. As with other uninhabited outlying islands claimed by Japan, these islands were used by the U.S. military for target practice from the end of World War II (1939 - 1945) until Okinawa (the Ryukyus) was returned to Japanese sovereignty in the early 1970s. Since then, Japanese nationalists have tried to develop and settle the islands while the government has taken a more cautious approach, but when authorities tried to nationalize some privately-held islands in 2012, China responded furiously, leading to a diplomatic and military standoff that remains tense.

Curiously, here Taiwan is shaded differently than Qing China, whereas in the earliest printings of the map it was also red. The Ryukyu Kingdom is also apparently included as part of Qing territory, while the homeland of the Qing Manchu rulers north of the Great Wall of China is outlined in green, with a historical note about the Manchus' expansion south of the Great Wall.

Hayashi and Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu

This map was also problematic when it was initially published, c. 1785. Then, it was one of the five maps prepared to illustrate Hayashi Shihei's Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu. Hayashi's work advocated for gathering intelligence about foreign lands for the defense of Japan but was banned by the Tokugawa Shogunate as contrary to its isolationist Sakoku (鎖国) or 'Closed Country' policy. Under the Tokugawa censure, almost all the original woodblock printed versions of Sangoku Tsuran Zusetsu were collected and destroyed. Nonetheless, Hayashi's work was not completely destroyed, and manuscript copies of his maps began to circulate in learned Japanese circles. Today, few examples of Hayashi's maps survive, most only in manuscript form, as here.

At the time of publication, there were other cartographically superior maps of the region, in particular Nagakubo Sekisui's (1717 - 1801) 1779 Kaisei Nihon Yochi Rotei Zenzu (Revised Route Map of Japan /改正日本輿地路程全圖). Compared to Sekisui's map, Hayashi's map is imprecise and not accurately scaled - which is why some of the geography is initially difficult to interpret. Even so, before Hayashi, Japanese cartographers paid little attention to the lands beyond their borders. But, by the late 18th century, Japan was beginning to see increased incursions upon its territory by Russian and Dutch powers, as well as aggressive missionary activity. Hayashi was prescient in recognizing that Japan's isolation, which would last another eighty years or so, was untenable in the face of rising global powers.

Differences between Editions

As with any text or map reproduced in manuscript form, especially when done so surreptitiously to avoid censorship, differences emerged between the initial printing of Hayashi's work and subsequent variations. In addition to the changes related to territorial disputes mentioned above, the present example differs in minor details such as the lack of latitude and longitude, the inclusion of characters indicating cardinal directions, the signification of mountains on Hokkaido, and several other features. These changes might have been accidental, but also could reflect the incorporation of more or better information as well as the evolution of Japanese intellectuals' worldviews.

Publication History and Census

Already a scarce map as it appeared in Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu, the present example is a manuscript. A note next to the title indicates that it was published in Sendai Domain (仙臺). Unlike the edition of the map published in Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu, the present example is undated, but it most likely dates from the late 18th or early 19th century. As noted previously, it is the rarest and most significant of Hayashi's five maps, providing not only a general overview of the region, but also addressing significant current political issues. It is an important piece for any collection focusing on the Liancourt Islands dispute, the Diaoyu / Senkaku dispute, or early Japanese mapping of the greater East Asia region.