From Arader Galleries - AraderNYC, New York, NY, U.S.A.
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AbeBooks Seller since December 2, 2005
About this Item
Pen and ink watercolor map on thin tissue and mounted on paper, (28 1/4 x 20 ¼ in.; 71.2 x 51.5 cm), after the 1785 map by Hayashi Shihei, folded to form 8 segments, with holograph annotations in black ink, the names of each of the eight provinces given in small, white rectangles, the city of Seoul distinguished by thick black lines outlining its square walls with its four main gates. BINDING/CONDITION: Accordion folded with light brown tissue affixed to second and eighth segments to form a protective outer covering, vertical cream label on the eighth segment; a little wear to edges all around, some separation from paper mount, scattered worm trails. (65B3A) AN EXTREMELY DESIRABLE MANUSCRIPT MAP OF KOREA AND AN IMPORTANT DOCUMENT FUNDAMENTAL TO THE BEGINNINGS OF A MORE EXPANSIVE JAPAN. Cartographic information on Korea first came to Europe through the Japanese and Chinese, who had some knowledge of the kingdom. "Early Chinese and Japanese maps portrayed the peninsular kingdom more adequately than the often hypothetical accounts in early European maps" (Short). In the 1780s, the Tokugawa regime, the last feudal military government of Japan, began to feel conflicted within its own ideology. Trade monopolies with the outside world generated enormous profits for the shogunate, but authorities wanted to limit the influence of outside traders by restricting free entry of foreigners and denying foreign travel to Japanese people. Although the policy of seclusion was dominant, there were those who endorsed a more activist presence in the region. This map was drawn after that of the military strategist Hayashi Shihei, which accompanied his Sangoku tsuran zusetsu (An Illustrated Description of the Three Countries), published in 1786. His book was one of the first to describe in detail Japan's geopolitical position in relation to the Joseon Dynasty (Korea), the Kingdom of Ryukyu (Okinawa) and Ezo (Hokkaido). Chief among its purposes was to demonstrate Japan's proximity to its neighbors. His writings emphasize the very real presence of external threats and the need for Japan to populate and develop its northern frontier in Hokkaido as well as to augment its military and naval powers. In 1792, the Edo government banned his treatise, seized most copies, and destroyed the woodblock printing plates. Consequently, most surviving examples of Shihei's map had been copied by hand, circulated in learned Japanese circles, and handed down from generation to generation. PROVENANCE: Geographicus Rare Antique Maps, 12 March 2019 REFERENCES: Short, John Rennie. Korea: A Cartographic History (2012), pp. 63-65; cf. Toby, Ronald P., "Mapping the Margins of Japan," passim, in Cartographic Japan (2016). Seller Inventory # 65ERM0022
Bibliographic Details
Title: Chosen hachido no zu (or) Chosen koko zenzu ...
Binding: Unbound
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