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Research Article| August 01 2000

The “Spatial Vernacular” in Tokugawa Maps

Marcia Yonemoto

Marcia Yonemoto

Marcia Yonemoto is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Colorado at Boulder, Boulder, Colorado.

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Journal of Asian Studies (2000) 59 (3): 647–666.

https://doi.org/10.2307/2658946

Abstract

As key components of the “peculiar metaphysic of modernity,” geographers in nineteenth-century Japan began to remap the world in the name of science and “civilization” (Mitchell 1991, xii). What is often overlooked in this equation of the map with modernity, however, is Japan's history of mapmaking before the modern period. Although the earliest imperial governments in Japan practiced administrative mapmaking on a limited scale beginning in the seventh century, it was only during the reign of the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1868) that comprehensive land surveying and mapmaking by the state were standardized and regularized. The Tokugawa ordered all daimyo to map their landholdings in 1605; these edicts were repeated numerous times, such that by the early nineteenth century the bakufu had organized five countrywide mapmaking and surveying projects, and produced from those surveys four comprehensive maps of Japan.

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Chizu no shiwa

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Imago Mundi

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65

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The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies

, edited by Woodward, D. and Harley, J. B..

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University of Chicago Press

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Kochizu e no tabi

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Asahi Shinbunsha

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The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies

, edited by Woodward, D. and Harley, J. B..

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“Nihonbashi: Edo’s Contested Center.”

East Asian History

17

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18

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49

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70

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Yonemoto, Marcia.

1999

b.

“Maps and Metaphors of the ‘Small Eastern Sea’ in Tokugawa Japan (1603–1868).”

Geographical Review

89

(

2

):

l69

–87.

Yonemoto, Marcia.

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[forthcoming]. “Envisioning Japan in Eighteenth-Century Europe: The International Career of a Cartographic Image.” Intellectual History Newsletter 22.

Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 2000

2000

Takejiro, Akioka, ed.

1971

.

Nihon kochizu shūsei

.

Tokyo

:

Kajima Kenkyōjo Shuppankai

.

Alpers, Svetlana.

1986

.

The Art of Describing: Dutch Art in the Seventeenth Century

.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Appadurai, Arjun.;

1996

. “Sovereignty Without Territoriality: Notes for a Postnational Geography.” In

The Geography of Identity

, edited by Yaeger, P..

Ann Arbor

:

University of Michigan Press

.

Yasunori, Arano, Masatoshi, Ishii, and Shōsuke, Murai, eds.

1993

.

Ajia no naka no Nihon shi. Vol. 5:Ji’isshiki to sōgo rikai

.

Tokyo

:

Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai

.

Berry, Mary Elizabeth.

1982

.

Hideyoshi

.

Cambridge, Mass.

:

Harvard University Press

.

Clunas, Craig.

1996

.

Fruitful Sites: Garden Culture in Ming Dynasty China

.

Durham, N.C.

:

Duke University Press

.

Clunas, Craig.

1997

.

Pictures and Visuality in Early Modern China

.

Princeton

:

Princeton University Press

.

Corbin, Alain.;

1995

.

The Lure of the Sea: The Discovery of the Seaside in the Western World, 1750–1840

. Translated by Phelps, J..

London

:

Penguin Books

.

De Certeau, Michel.;

1984

.

The Practice of Everyday Life

. Translated by Rendell, Steven.

Berkeley and Los Angeles

:

University of California Press

.

Donne, John.;

1985

. “A Valediction of Weeping.” In

The Complete English Poems of John Donne

, edited by Patrides, C. A..

London

:

Everyman’s Library

.

Edney, Matthew H.

1993

.

“Cartography Without ‘Progress’: Reinterpreting the Nature and Historical Development of Mapmaking.”

Cartographka

30

(

2

—3):

54

—

68

.

Kumiko., Fujizane

1996

.

“Bukan no shuppan to shomotsu shi Izumodera.”

Edo bungaku

16

:

108

–23.

Goodwin, Janet R.

1994

.

Alms and Vagabonds: Buddhist Temples and Popular Patronage in Medieval Japan

.

Honolulu

:

University of Hawaii Press

.

Helgerson, Richard.

1992

.

Forms of Nationhood: The Elizabethan Writing of England

.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Howell, David L.

1994

.

“Ainu Ethnicity and the Boundaries of the Early Modern Japanese State.”

Past & Present

142

:

69

–

93

.

Ryüsen., Ishikawa

1689

a. Edo zukan kōmoku, ken: George H. Beans Collection, University of British Columbia Library, Map Special Collections Division #G7964 E3 168918.

Ryüsen., Ishikawa

1689

b. Edo zukan kōmoku, kon: George H. Beans Collection, University of British Columbia Library, Text Special Collections Division #G7964 E3 168918.

Jackson, John Brinckerhoff.

1984

.

Discovering the Vernacular Landscape

.

New Haven, Conn.

:

Yale University Press

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Kaempfer, Englebert.

1906

.

The History of Japan

. 3 vols.

Glasgow

:

James MacLehose and Sons

.

Hirotada., Kawamura

1984

.

Edo bakufu-sen kuniezu no kenkyu

.

Tokyo

:

Kokon Shoin

.

Korhonen, Pekka.

1998

.

Japan and Asia Pacific Integration: Pacific Romances 1968–1996

.

London and New York

:

Routledge

.

Levenson, Joseph.

1968

.

Confucian China and its Modern Fate: A Trilogy

.

Berkeley and Los Angeles

:

University of California Press

.

Lewis, Martin L., and Kären, E. Wigen.

1997

.

The Myth of Continents: A Critique of Metageography

.

Berkeley and Los Angeles

:

University of California Press

.

Mitchell, Timothy.

1991

.

Colonising Egypt

.

Berkeley and Los Angeles

:

University of California Press

.

Morris-Suzuki, Tessa.

1994

.

“Creating the Frontier: Border, Identity and History in Japan’s Far North.”

East Asian History

7

:

1

—

24

.

Nagasaki Prefectural Art Museum and Sichting Siebold Council

.

1990

.

{Nagasaki Dejima kara no tabi) Yōroppa ni miru Nihon no takara: Shiiboruto Korekushon

.

Nagasaki

:

Bungei Shunju and Sichting Siebold Council

.

Matsutaro, Nanba, Nobuo, Muroga, and Kazutaka, Unno, eds.

1972

.

Old Maps in Japan

. Translated by Murray, Patricia.

Osaka

:

Sogensha

.

Matsunosuke, Nishiyama, et al, eds.

1994

.

Edogaku jiten

.

Tokyo

:

Kobunkan

.

Rundstrom, Robert A.

1991

.

“Mapping, Postmodernism, Indigenous People and the Changing Direction of North American Cartography.”

Cartographka

28

(

2

):

1

–

12

.

Fumiko., Sugimoto;

1994

.

“Kuniezu.”

In Iwanami kōza Nihon tsūshi, edited by Naohiro, Asao, et al.

Tokyo

:

Iwanami Shoten

.

Bijutsukan, Suntorii, ed.

1993

.

Seiyōjin no egaita Nihon chizu

.

Tokyo

:

OAG, Doitsu Tōyō Bunka Kenkyū Kyōkai

[Deutsche Gesellschaft für Natur-und Völkerkunde Ostasiens].

Toby, Ronald P.

1984

.

State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan

.

Princeton

:

Princeton University Press

.

Tokyo, Daigaku Shiryo Hensanjo, ed.

1972

.

Henshū chishi biyō tenseki kaidai

. Vol. 11, Pt. 1—6, Dai Nihon kinsei shiryō.

Tokyo

:

Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai

.

Turnbull, David.

1993

.

Maps are Territories, Science is an Atlas

.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Kazutaka., Unno

1985

. “Tawamure no chizu.” In

Chizu no shiwa

.

Tokyo

:

Yūshōdō Shuppan

.

Kazutaka., Unno

1991

.

“Government Cartography in Sixteenth-Century Japan.”

Imago Mundi

43

:

86

–91.

Kazutaka., Unno

1993

.

Maps of Japan Used in Prayer Rites or as Charms

.

Imago Mundi

46

:

65

—

83

.

Kazutaka., Unno;

1994

. “Cartography in Japan.” In

The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies

, edited by Woodward, D. and Harley, J. B..

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Kazutaka, Unno, Takeo, Oda and Nobuo, Muroga, eds.

1972

–75.

Nihon kochizu taisei

. 2 vols.

Tokyo

:

Kōdansha

.

Walter, Lutz, ed.

1994

.

Japan, A Cartographic Vision: European Printed Maps from the Early 16th to the 19th Century

. Edited by Walter, Lutz.

Munich

:

Prestel

.

Walter, Lutz.;

1994

a. “A Typology of Maps of Japan Printed in Europe (1595–1800).” In

Japan, A Cartographic Vision: European Printed Maps from the Early 16th to the 19th Century

. Edited by Walter, Lutz.

Munich

:

Prestel

.

Walter, Lutz.;

1994

b. “Englebert Kaempfer and the European Cartography of Japan.” In

Japan, A Cartographic Vision: European Printed Maps from the Early 16th to the 19th Century

. Edited by Walter, Lutz.

Munich

:

Prestel

.

Walter, Lutz.;

1994

c. “Philipp Franz von Siebold.”

Injapan, A Cartographic Vision: European Printed Maps from the Early 16th to the 19th Century

. Edited by Walter, Lutz.

Munich

:

Prestel

.

Woodward, David and Harley, J. B., eds.

1987

.

The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies

. 2 vols. Vol. 2.

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Osamu, Yamaguchi, ed.

1976

.

Edo jidai zushi

. Vol. 14: Tōkaidō (1).

Tokyo

:

Chikuma Shobō

.

Kazuhiko., Yamori

1974

.

Kochizu to fōkei

.

Tokyo

:

Kōdansha

.

Kazuhiko., Yamori

1992

.

Kochizu e no tabi

.

Tokyo

:

Asahi Shinbunsha

.

Yee, Cordell D. K.;

1994

. “Cartography in China.” In

The History of Cartography: Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies

, edited by Woodward, D. and Harley, J. B..

Chicago

:

University of Chicago Press

.

Yonemoto, Marcia.

1999

a.

“Nihonbashi: Edo’s Contested Center.”

East Asian History

17

/

18

:

49

–

70

.

Yonemoto, Marcia.

1999

b.

“Maps and Metaphors of the ‘Small Eastern Sea’ in Tokugawa Japan (1603–1868).”

Geographical Review

89

(

2

):

l69

–87.

Yonemoto, Marcia.

2000

[forthcoming]. “Envisioning Japan in Eighteenth-Century Europe: The International Career of a Cartographic Image.” Intellectual History Newsletter 22.