1938 Koyama Kichizō View of Suzhou, Second Sino-Japanese War

This is an unrecorded c. 1938 Koyama Kichizō bird's eye view of Suzhou, China. It presents a lovely overview of the resplendent ancient city but also obscures the ongoing hostilities of the Second Sino-Japanese War, in which the city was occupied in late 1937.

A Closer Look

This view is oriented towards the north, with the Yangzi (Yangtze) River at the top, Shanghai and Hangzhou at the right, and Lake Tai (Taihu) at the left. The size of Suzhou is greatly exaggerated to allow for detailed coverage of the city. The cityscape is dominated by the Beisi (北寺) Pagoda, originally built on its current design in the Song Dynasty and one of the tallest structures in the world when completed in the 12th century. Other landmarks, mostly religious sites, stand out amid the other structures in the city, such as the Daoist Temple of Mystery (玄妙觀), the Twin Pagoda Temple (雙塔寺), the city's Confucian Temple (孔子廟), and, outside the city walls, the Tiger Hill Pagoda (虎丘塔), often compared to the Leaning Tower of Pisa as it is similarly gradually falling over. But the city is best known for its gorgeous gardens, dating back to the Song Dynasty, with the most famous being the Humble Administrator's Garden (拙政園). Additional gardens are labeled, while the city's famous canals (often compared to Venice) are illustrated throughout. The city's train station appears to the left of Beisi, just outside the city wall, with rail lines traced linking Suzhou to other nearby cities. At right is the folded-out cover of the view, with an area for notetaking and a map of the Lower Yangzi region, with roads, rail lines, air routes, and other features noted.

The verso includes photographs of some of the city's main attractions as well as text discussing Suzhou's history, city wall, cityscape and street life, major tourist sites, and local products, such as an expensive folk medicine (Chinese Traditional Medicine) product called 'Six Deity Pills' (六神丸) made from musk, cow gallstones, bear gallbladder, and other ingredients, which became a popular remedy in Japan in the Meiji period. The outside of the cover of the view presents a lovely illustration of the Tiger Hill Pagoda from a nearby canal.

This view was primarily intended for Japanese tourists visiting from the Home Islands or perhaps from Shanghai, which had tens of thousands of Japanese residents at this time. However, a stamp at the top-left corner of the cover indicates that it was sent by military post (军事邮便), likely from a Japanese soldier to his family back home. Although Suzhou was occupied along with other cities in the Lower Yangzi or Jiangnan region in late 1937, it escaped the sort of destruction seen in Shanghai or the horrific abuses committed at Nanjing, perhaps due to the city's cultural significance, which the Japanese would also have held in high regard. The occupation of Suzhou itself was fairly uneventful, but the city served as the headquarters of a brutal Japanese / Chinese collaborationist counter-insurgency targeting the many bandits, guerillas, and revolutionaries of various stripes that operated in the surrounding countryside (known as qingxiang 清鄉, or 'cleansing the countryside').

Sketchbook Mailer Maps

This view is an example of a sketchbook mailer (書簡圖繪), a genre of bird's-eye view that became very popular in Japan in the 1920s-1940s. The name of the genre likely comes from the notetaking sections often included near the title panel or on the inside of the cover. Sketchbook mailers most often depicted famous scenic sites or cityscapes from across Japan's growing empire and were so prominent that they were given their own category in the Japanese postal system. (The current view is registered as 'Sketchbook Mailer No. 275211' on the verso). Each view was designed to be folded and packaged for safe and easy mailing and came with information about and photographs of the site(s) depicted on the verso, as is the case here. Although these drawings are fascinating, beautiful, and educational, they also served a political function, informing Japanese audiences about the empire and helping to build a shared sense of national identity.

Publication History and Census

This view was drawn by Koyama Kichizō and issued by Idemitsu Mamoru / Chu Guangwei (出光衛), likely a Chinese employee of the Shanghai branch of Tokyo-based publisher Shiseidō (至誠堂). It was printed by Nihon Meisho Zuesha (日本名所圖繪). The view is undated but likely dates to 1938, after the city's capture by Japanese troops, in keeping with the pattern of Koyama's other works. It is worth noting that Koyama also produced a city plan of Suzhou around the same time (titled '最新蘇州地圖').

We have been unable to locate any other examples of this view in institutional collections or on the market; even the Nichibunken (International Research Center for Japanese Studies), the largest storehouse for rare wartime bird's eye views, does not list the present work in its catalog.