Japanese maps
An example might be an Edo era pilgrimage map depicting the route and location of lodges on the road between Kyoto and Edo, including images of people on the road, with distances between stops differentiated not by relative distance, but by numerical markings, as scale as it is recognized in the West today was not generally used.
Much of the fundamental concepts of space as depicted in Japanese maps can be traced to Chinese geomancy and Buddhist cosmologies, which came to Japan in the 7th and 8th centuries.
North–south orientation, as in China, is thought to have been evident in the plan of the ancient capital (672–686 AD) of Naniwa (modern Osaka) as well.
It is highly important, therefore, that a large-scale map material or trig lists captured from the Japanese be transmitted promptly to the Chief of Engineers in Washington, DC.
"[3] The oldest known map in Japan is a topographical drawing discovered on a stone wall inside a tomb in the city of Kurayoshi, in Tottori Prefecture, dated to the 6th century AD.
The earliest extant maps in Japan date to the 8th century, and depict the ownership of square rice field plots, oriented to the four cardinal directions.
During the Shōmu reign (聖武天皇, 701–756), maps known as Gyōki-zu (行基図), named for the high priest Gyōki (高僧, 668–749), were developed.
These maps covered a broader area, and include a much larger portion of what is now known as Japan, giving an idea of the extent of known territory at the time.
"The earliest Japanese maps, attributed to a Buddhist priest called Gyōki Bosatsu (668–749), shows a curious affinity with modern notice boards in public parks.
A scheme of outline loops showing land ownership and boundaries, with south generally at the top, characterized this form of mapmaking, a response to the government's need for feudal information.
Examples of such estate surveys surviving from the Nara period in the eighth century (named after the ancient Japanese capital city).
"[4] During the period of Handen sei, major Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, and loyal families bought fields and expand their shōen manors.
During the latter half of the 16th century and beyond, traditional Japanese mapmaking became influenced by Western techniques for the first time with the arrival of Portuguese and later Dutch knowledge through the trade port of Nagasaki.
Japan thus saw full world maps for the first time, changing notions of a Buddhist cosmology matched with physical geography.
Portuguese cartographers like Fernão Vaz Dourado and Inácio Moreira have been among the first to draw accurate maps of then known parts of Japan.
Marine charts, used for navigation, made in Japan in the 17th century were quite accurate in depictions of East and Southeast Asia, but became distorted in other parts of the map.
The first attempts to create a map encompassing all of Japan were undertaken by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1591, late in the Sengoku period.
Kuniezu were maps of each province within Japan that the Edo government (1603–1867) ordered created in the years 1644-1647 (Shōhō 1), 1696-1702 (Genroku 9), and 1835-1838 (Tenpō 6).
The purpose of kuni-ezu was to clearly specify not only the transformation of boundaries of provinces, roads, mountains, and rivers but also the increase in kokudaka (石高, rice output) following the development of new field.
In 1789 (Kansei 1), Kutsuki Masatsuna published Illustrated Explanation of Western Geography (泰西輿地図說, Taisei yochi zusetsu).
On order of the shogun he dedicated 16 years between 1800 and 1817 to survey all Japanese coastlines, but died before a complete map of Japan could be produced.
In 1863, the Hydrographic Department of British Royal Navy published the map of the Shelf Sea around the Japanese islands based on the Ino-zu and the accurate geographic location of Japan became widely known.
"Between Meiji era and the end of World War II, map production in Japan was conducted by the Land Survey Department of the General Staff Headquarters, the former Japanese army.
Their geographical coverage stretches to Alaska northward, covering areas of U.S. mainland eastward, Australia southward, and westward to parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan, including Madagascar.
