1922 Yoshida Panoramic Bird's Eye View of Japan

A stunning, large-format 1922 foldout bird's-eye view of Japan, drawn by Yoshida Hatsusaburo, a master of the genre, for the Japanese Ministry of Railways. It highlights the country's transportation links, particularly railways, which were the primary means of interurban travel, while also celebrating the 1922 Tokyo Peace Exhibition.

A Closer Look

As the introductory text at right point out, this view adopts the unusual orientation towards the southeast rather than towards the west, as was common for bird's-eye views of Japan, allowing for the inclusion of Korea (then a Japanese colony), along with parts of Manchuria and eastern China, in the foreground and the Pacific Ocean in the background. Major rail lines are traced in red, connecting Japanese cities throughout the home islands, as well as Taiwan and Karafuto (the southern half of Sakhalin), also Japanese colonies. Shipping lines are traced in white, connecting Japan to North America, the Panama Canal, the Chinese coast, and Southeast Asia.

The verso contains text that matches the grand scope of the recto. An initial section discusses the popularization of transportation, and takes on specific topics such as the state of Japan's rail network and the fastest possible route between Tokyo and London. A following section covers geographic characteristics of Japan's different regions (including colonies) at length and provides travel times by ship to ports near and far.

The National Imaginary

As with many of Yoshida's views, the present work reflects Japan's expanding territory, growing ambitions, and changing self-conception in the early part of the 20th century, as it became a major world power and drifted towards militarist nationalism. Since passenger rail was the main means of long-distance transportation and an important driver of the economy, the government, particularly the Railway Ministry, had a clear interest in promoting domestic travel and tourism (Yoshida played an important role in these efforts and had originally made his name in the 1910s for his Railway Tourism Guide 鐵道旅行案内 views). Meanwhile, as Japanese politics were becoming increasingly nationalistic in this period, the government was eager to promote a vague yet powerful sense of 'national essence' (國體), in which the landscape of Japan played an important symbolic role.

Expansion and Nationalization of Japan's Railways

Like much of the Western world, Japan saw a boom in railway construction in the late 19th-century, a combination of private ventures, government-operated lines, and lines built through public-private partnerships. Around the turn of the century, the Japanese government aimed for standardization and rationalization of the system and hoped to expand the network to every corner of the Japanese home islands. Troubles encountered during the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905) only strengthened these concerns, and in 1906, major interurban lines were nationalized, a move welcomed by the shareholders of the pre-existing companies, which had become unprofitable. But suburban commuter lines and light rail lines to more remote areas and smaller cities continued to be privately operated, often with considerable government support. In 1920, the Imperial Railway Board (鐵道院) was reorganized as the Ministry of Railways (鐵道省), which produced this view. During World War II (1939 - 1945), remaining private lines were nationalized, and during the U.S. Occupation, the railways were reorganized as a public corporation, Japanese National Railways.

Japan's Great War and the Tokyo Peace Exhibition

An introductory block of text at right explains that this map was produced to coincide with Tokyo's 1922 Peace Exhibition (平和博覽會). Although it was dedicated to world peace and the memory of the World War I (1914 - 1918), the Tokyo Peace Exhibition was similar to earlier international exhibitions in that it was primarily a celebration of technology and empire. The festive mood of the exhibition might have been due to the fact that Japan had suffered very little and profited considerably from the First World War. Like the U.S., Japan benefitted economically by providing the Allies with financing, weapons, and supplies, which helped overcome debts from the Russo-Japanese War (1904 - 1905). Japan also gained control of the German concession at Jiaozhou (Qingdao) in China, expanded its informal empire in China, and occupied several German territories in the Western Pacific.

Japan also tried to position itself as an arbiter of postwar peace, and, as the only major non-Western power, acted as the voice of non-white peoples. However, Japan's effort to have a racial equality clause inserted into the Treaty of Versailles was rebuffed, and Japanese naval ambitions were constrained by the other major victors of World War I at the Washington Naval Conference, hinting at future tensions with the U.S. in particular. Japan also benefitted from the collapse of its old rival, Tsarist Russia, though it did intervene with other Allied powers against the Soviets in the Russian Civil War. Although the Soviets eventually won the civil war, Japan gained important intelligence and experience from its Siberian intervention.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by Yoshida Hatsusaburo and was printed by Toppan Printing in 1922 for the Transportation Bureau of the Japanese Ministry of Railways (鐵道省運輸局). It is quite scarce, only being noted among the holdings of the National Diet Library, Waseda University, and the Nichibunken (International Research Center for Japanese Studies).