1882 Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Map of Fujian and Taiwan

A rare and important large-format folding map of Fujian and Taiwan, produced c. 1882 by the General Staff of the Japanese Imperial Army. Made in the wake of Japan's 1874 Punitive Expedition to Taiwan, this map presages the 1895 conquest and colonization of Formosa.

A Closer Look

The entirety of the Qing province of Fujian, including the island of Formosa or Taiwan and other nearby islands, is depicted. Major cities and administrative centers (prefecture and county seats), most of which were still walled at this time, along with other fortifications, towns, roads, rivers, mountains, and islands, are noted. At the bottom-left, two inset maps cover the walled city of Fuzhou as well as the island of Nantai in the Min River, just south of the walled city. Both inset maps are highly detailed, recording street names, temples, parks, military facilities, government offices, and more.

Japanese Punitive Expedition of 1874

In 1874, the Japanese launched a punitive expedition to Taiwan, nominally in retaliation for the 1871 Mundan Incident, where several dozen shipwrecked Ryukyuan sailors were killed by Taiwanese Paiwan aborigines. This was a patently thin justification, as Japan had only begun to claim sovereignty over the Ryukyu Kingdom in 1872, after the incident occurred. Moreover, the Qing response to the Mudan Incident, disclaiming responsibility for the actions of unacculturated aboriginals outside of their jurisdiction, was liberally iterpreted by Japan as a relinquishment of sovereignty over both the Ryukyu Kingdom (a Qing tributary state) and Taiwan. Nevertheless, the true intention of the 1874 expedition to Taiwan was to test both Japan's ability to undertake such an operation and the resolve of the Qing Dynasty to defend its outlying territory. The expedition marked the first Imperial Japanese military and naval expedition outside Japan following the Meiji Restoration (1868) and set the stage for the complete Japanese annexation of Ryukyu in 1879 and Taiwan in 1895.

Japan launched its retaliatory mission in May 1874, in which Saigō Tsugumichi led 3,600 Japanese soldiers to Paiwan territory. In the Battle of Stone Gate, the Paiwan were soundly defeated. The Japanese army subsequently withdrew from Taiwan after the Qing agreed to pay an indemnity of 500,000 Kuping Taels (18.7 tons of silver) in a British arbitrated agreement. Subsequently, the Qing realized that they needed to assert greater control over the indigenous peoples of eastern Taiwan and began a series of trade missions and military incursions. Increasing interest in Taiwan by Japan and other foreign powers (the French attempted to occupy parts of the island during the 1884-1885 Sino-French War) also convinced the Qing to play a more active role in the island's administration. Soon after this map's publication, Taiwan was separated from Fujian, upgraded to a province in its own right, and underwent administrative reforms and modernization projects. Their efforts began to yield results but were stymied by the 1895 Japanese takeover of Taiwan. Combining brutal methods with an efficient modern bureaucracy, Imperial Japan quickly suppressed opposition and became the first government to fully control Formosa.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared by the Mapping Division of the General Staff of the Imperial Japanese Army (參謀本部地圖課). It is undated, but from context, it most likely dates to the early 1880s and, in any event, must predate the Qing administrative reforms of the mid-late 1880s. The map is quite rare; it is very scarce to the market and we only note institutional collections at the National Diet Library, Meiji University, and the University of Tokyo.