Sekisui, First Edition (5 results)

6th or 7th edition. Thirteen colour double page woodblock maps, bound in Japanese accordion binding, 34 x 20cm, maps with margin 35 x 40cm. Includes the foreword from the 1789 first edition. Paper on the boards chipped and worn, paper title label upper cover little worn and marked. The maps in this copy are in very good condition. Very good. This Japanese historical atlas of Chinese maps traces Chinese history from the early times through to the Qing Dynasty. First published in 1789, two editions of this atlas were published in 1835. This handsome atlas was very popular and was published in seven different editions between 1789 and 1857. The maps in this atlas are: 1. ?????? [Dai Shinkoku do?teizu] [Map of The Broad World of Great Qing] 2. ????? [Uko? kyu?shu?zu] [Yugong Map of the Nine Provinces] 3. ????? [Shu? Shokuho?-shi zu] [Map of the Nine Provinces of Zhou Dynasty] 4. ????? [Shunju? rekkokuzu] [Map of Five Nations of Chunqiu Period (Eastern Zhou Dynasty)] 5. ????? [Sengoku shichiyu?zu] [Map of Seven States of Zhanguo Period (Eastern Zhou Dynasty)] 6. ????????? [Shin sanju?rokugun narabi ni Etsu shigun] [Map of Thirty-six Administrative Regions of Qin Dynasty] 7. ????? [Seikan shu?gunzu] [Map of Administrative Divisions and subdivisions of Western Han Dynasty] 8. ????? [To?kan shu?gunzu] [Map of Administrative Divisions of Eastern Han Dynasty] 9. ????? [Sangoku teijizu] [Map of Tripartite Confrontation of the Three Kingdoms] 10. ???????? [Ryo? Shin Nanbokucho? shu?gunzu] [Map of Administrative Divisions and Subdivisions of Two Jin Dynasties, Southern and Northern Dynasties (A.D.265-5890] 11. ???? [To? ju?do?zu] [Map of Ten Prefectures of Tang Dynasties] 12. ?????????? [Dai Min itto nikei ju?sansho?zu] [Map of Thirteen Provinces of Great Ming] 13. ??????? [Ajia sho ?To?yo?zu] [Map of Asia and Little Eastern Ocean] The title label on the upper cover suggests this copy is part of the 3rd edition however the colophon, which gives the publisher as ?????? and ?????? [Itamiya Zenbei and Kawachiya Kihei], indicates that it is part of the 6th or 7th edition both of which were published in 1857. ?????? [Kawachiya Kihei] was not in business until the 1850s.

Softcover. Condition: Near fine. The influential world map created by famous Edo period geographer and Confucian scholar Nagakubo Sekisui (1717-1801), based on a world map by Italian Jesuit priest and one of the founding figures of the Jesuit China missions, Matteo Ricci (1552-1610). Ricci`s original Chinese map of the world was published in 1602 and introduced the findings of European exploration to East Asia. The first edition of Sekisui`s map, which had a large influence on Japan`s impression of the world, was published in Japan around 1785. This is a later, small-format woodblock-printed edition in near fine condition. Original upper wrapper, lower wrapper a later addition. With original title slip. Light abrasion to upper wrapper. One small wormhole to a few folds, and occasional minor chipping to extremities. Otherwise near fine. 1 colour woodblock-printed leaf, complete. Text in Japanese. Used book.

19 woodcut illus. & maps, some double-page. 33 folding leaves. Large 8vo, orig. wrappers with the orig. title-slip (label rubbed), new stitching. Osaka: Asano yahei ?????, 1792. First edition of this travelogue from a journey to the northern part of the main island of Honshu. Mutsu and Dewa provinces were very large territories that today correspond to Fukushima, Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori, Yamagata, and Akita prefectures. At the time of publication, the region was relatively far removed from the center of Japanese civilization. Locations pictured in the book include Shiogama, a town in present-day Miyagi Prefecture; the group of pine-covered islands called Matsushima; and Mount Ch?kai, an active volcano in the region; and other places. Nagakubo (1717-1801) was "a geographer and mapmaker, one of the first to place Japan on the longitude and latitude grid, and creator of a number of influential woodblock-print maps of Japan and of Asia. Sekisui also worked on the Dai Nihon shi, the grand history project centered in his home domain of Mito. His study of geography, and the travels that formed part of his research, were undertaken in the context of that larger project. But in addition to his geographical and historical scholarship, Sekisui was also a prolific author and, as many intellectuals did, he fancied himself an accomplished composer of poetry in the Chinese style (kanshi)" (Yonemoto, Mapping Early Modern Japan, p. 70). "All of Sekisui's travel accounts blended poetry in Chinese with description of local scenery, routes, and roads. In this way, his writings combine his vocation and his avocation, as long stretches of relatively unadorned prose are punctuated by highly allusive kanshi verses and an occasional diagram or illustration" (Marcia Yonemoto, pp. 70-71). Nagakubo includes detailed descriptions of several stele, including the Tagaj? stele ???? and the Nasu no kuni no miyatsuko stele ????? The Tagaj? stele, almost two meters tall, was erected in 762 to commemorate the restoration of the town of Tagaj? The stele records the distances from Tagaj? to various locations throughout Japan, followed by a record of the city's founding and restoration. The stele was discovered in the second half of the 17th century. The Nasu no kuni no miyatsuko stele was erected in memory of a local official who died in 700 CE. This stele too received attention in the late 17th century. In our book, Nagakubo includes transcriptions of the stele inscriptions as well as drawings of the stones. In an appendix to the main text, entitled Hokuetsu shichiki ????, Nagakubo describes the "seven marvels of Echigo." Nagakubo set out to find these locations without earlier guidebooks to help him, but was able to locate them by asking locals. The definition of these seven varies, but in our book they include, for example, the "smelly water," "fire well," the "bundle of eight plums," the "triple chestnut," the "upside-down bamboo," the "mummified Buddha," and the "burnt earth." Nagakubo's book was finished in 1760 but only published in 1792. Fine copy, very minor worming occasionally touching characters, preserved in a chitsu.

36 : 24 cm. 13 coloured, double-page woodblock-maps. Japanese accordion binding, paper title-label on upper cover. This japanese historical atlas of Chinese maps traces Chinese history from the early times through to the Qing Dynasty. Includes the foreward from the 1789 first edition. The popular atlas contains the following maps: 1. (Dai Shinkoku doteizu) Map of the Broad World of Great Qing. - 2. (Uko kyushuzu) Yugong Map of the Nine Provinces. - 3. Shu Shokuho-shi-zu) Map of the Nine Provinces of Zhou Dynasty. - 4. (Shunju rekkokuzu) Map if the Five Nations of Chunqiu Period (Eastern Zhou Dynasty). - 5. (Sengoku shichiyuzu) Map of Seven States of Zhangou Period (Eastern Zhou Dynasty). - 6. (Shin sanjurokugun narabi ni Etsu shingun) Map of Thirty-six Administrative Regions of Qin Dynasty. - 7. (Seikan shugunzu) Map of Administrative Divisions and Subdivisions of Western Han Dynasty. - 8. (Tokan shungunzu) Map of Administrative Division of Eastern Han Dynasty. - 9.(Sangoku teijizu) Map of Tripartite Confrontation of the Three Kingdoms. - 10. (Ryo Shin Nanbokucho shungunzu). Map of Administrative Divisions and Subdivisions of Two Jin Dynasties, Southern and Northern Dynasties (A.D. 265-5890). - 11. (To judozu) Map of Ten Prfectures of Tang Dynasties. - 12. (Dai Min itto nikei jusanshozu) Map of Thirteen Provinces of Great Ming. - 13. (Ajia sho Toyozu) Map of Asia and Little Eastern Ocean. - Introduction in the upper part with some water-stains, maps not effected; binding partly dusty and a bit wrinkled.

No Binding. Condition: Very Good. 1st Edition. Ca. 1850. Single sheet (12 3/8" x 23 1/8", 314mm x 587mm). Ink and watercolor on washi paper, laid down on heavier paper for support. Sometime folded into 16 with some losses along the old folds. With some small water stains and ink stains. With pigment oxidation verso. Stamped at lower left. Nagakudo Sekisui (1717-1801) was an Edo-period geographer and Confucian scholar, described as the founder of Japanese geography, and the first Japanese cartographer to use lines of latitude and longitude on his maps. He was born into a peasant family in Hitachi province, but in 1767 went to Nagasaki and was able to visit Dejima (the artificial island created to allow foreign traders to reside in Japan, which was otherwise closed) and learn some of the geography of the world from the Dutch. In 1771 he was sent to Edo as the official tutor to the daimyo of Mito han. In 1779 his new revised map of Japan appeared and then in 1785 his new map of the world based on the geography of Matteo Ricci. The present map is a manuscript copy of Sekisui's woodcut world map based on Ricci's (on an oval projection). The form and lettering copies the woodcut map very closely, with the exception of a variant in the depiction of southern Africa and additional text in the margins. The Ricci form became the standard world map form in Japanese cartography for the next 70 years; copying Sekisui's map was commonplace, and undoubtedly manuscript copies also circulated, probably secretly among scholars. Japan had been closed to the outside world for 200 years (those who left Japan faced execution upon return) and knowledge of the form of the world was not widely circulated. Sekisui's maps and their derivatives are therefore a foundation stone in the opening up of Japan to the outside world, and the changes in society brought about in the Meiji period.