1840 Japanese World Map on Mercator Projection, with Recent Discoveries

An enigmatic touchstone in the development of Japanese cartographic knowledge, this is a c. 1840 late Edo period ukiyo-e woodblock print world map on a Mercator Projection. The map was published in the final decades of Japan's Sakoku (鎖国, 'Locked Country') era - making it most unusual for its presentation of Western geographical knowledge. The map was thus produced anonymously, likely to avoid reprisals from Tokugawa censors.

A Closer Look

The map presents the world on a Mercator Projection, with the Equator, tropics, and a grid representing latitude and longitude, though these are not numbered. Instead, the longitude lines are arranged according to the Earthly Branches, a system of categorization in East Asian divination, astronomy, and cartography. The text at bottom, which matches Nagakubo Sekisui's (長久保玄珠) late 18th-century 'Complete Geographic Map and Description of the World', refers to Dutch maps as the basis for this map. However, the present map differs from Nagakubo's in several important respects, most notably the relatively accurate depiction of Australia, New Zealand, the northwest coast of America, Hawaii, and several other features in the Pacific, reflecting the great voyages of the late 18th-century by Cook, Vancouver, La Perouse, and others.

The use of Dutch source maps likely explains the maker's curious transliteration of placenames, including within Japan, into kana rather than the long-established Japanese kanji. For example, Hokkaido is labeled as マツマー, referring to the Matsumae clan, the vassals of the Tokugawa whose domain the island constituted. Similarly, Tsushima, Iki, and other islands of Japan are atypically written in kana, as are Taiwan and the Ryukyus. Even more confusingly, some features, such as Kyushu, are written using both kanji and kana as (九シウ). Perhaps most intriguingly, individual Hawaiian Islands appear in their indigenous names: Kauai (コウイエイ) and Maui (モウイト).

A Small Opening to the World

For most of the Edo or Tokugawa Era (1600 - 1868), Japan operated under Sakoku (鎖国, 'Locked Country') policies, where foreign trade and interaction were allowed with the Dutch and Chinese at Nagasaki and through other tightly constrained channels, but otherwise forbidden to prevent potentially troublesome foreign ideas like Christianity from undermining Tokugawa rule. Nevertheless, some Japanese intellectuals, particularly of the 'Dutch Learning' (Rangaku) School, were aware of developments in the outside world and the Tokugawa became quietly but increasingly concerned about foreign threats. Whalers, adventurers, and would-be traders from Russia, Europe, and the United States appeared on Japan's shores with increasing frequency at the end of the 18th century. In response, the Tokugawa moved to exert greater control over the northern region known as Ezo (蝦夷), including Hokkaido, through the Matsumae clan, vassals of the Tokugawa. Some intellectuals like Nagakubo Sekisui and Mogami Tokunai (最上徳内) successfully advocated for new land surveys and the production of improved maps. But others, such as Hayashi Shihei (林子平), found that there were limits to acceptable public discussion of geographical knowledge, especially if it touched on politics and geopolitics, and were consequently censored. The lack of publication information on this map may be the result of the makers seeking to avoid any potential trouble with the Tokugawa authorities.

Publication History and Census

This map was produced and published anonymously in the late Edo period, most likely around the year 1840. It is not attributed to Nagakubo Sekisui and the accurate depiction of Australia and other features in the Pacific indicates that it postdates Nagakubo's life, but as mentioned above the text at bottom matches that in his 'Complete Geographic Map and Description of the World' (地球萬國山海輿地全圖說), initially produced in the late 18th century. The present map is only known to be held by the National Museum of Taiwan History and Yokohama City University, and has no known history on the market, though its fairly generic title means that the existence of additional examples cannot be ruled out. The National Museum of Taiwan History estimates the date to be significantly later, corresponding to the Meiji period, but the emphasis on Dutch maps combined with the continued use of 'New Holland' and the still inaccurate mapping of continents' coastlines leads us (and the Yokohama City University) to believe it was produced earlier.