萬國総界圖 (万国総界図) [Bankoku Sōkaizu] [Map of the Whole World]

Edo (Tokyo), Japan : 須原屋茂兵衛 [Suharaya Mohē], [1708] (Hōei 5). Woodblock print with yellow colours added by hand, 1315 x 595mm, original covers and title slip; complete.

An early Japanese map of the world. Japan is displayed in the centre of the map, which is oriented so that east [東] is at the top of the document.

This map was produced at a time of national isolation (sakoku). Japanese citizens were not permitted to travel outside Japan during this time, and little information would have filtered into Japan from its limited trade relations with Korea, the Ryūkyū Kingdom (Okinawa), the Dutch East India Company, and Qing China. The map was therefore based on foreign maps brought into Japan by Europeans during this period.

In particular, Ishikawa’s map shows many similarities to one produced by the Italian Jesuit priest Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) in 1602. Ricci arrived in Macau in 1582 and was one of the first westerners to study the Chinese language and script in preparation for the Jesuits’ move into mainland China. In 1584 he, along with Chinese collaborators, produced the first Chinese-language map of the world to be done in a European style, of which no prints are known to have survived. He created a second edition of this map in 1600. Ricci greatly improved upon these earlier maps for his 1602 world map, Kunyu Wanguo Quantu, done at the request of the Wanli Emperor. His 1602 map introduced to Asia the findings of European explorations and also included Chinese cartographic knowledge which was at the time unknown in Europe. Several copies of the 1602 map have survived. A detailed copy of the 1602 map was produced in Japan around 1604, with the title Konyo Bankoku Zenzu. Perhaps it was this map, or another Japanese copy, that informed Ishikawa’s map.

Interestingly, the map depicts landmarks such as the Great Wall, and mythical lands such as the land of giants [長人島] and the land of small people [小人島]. In the top left there is a Qing Chinese ship, and in the top right a Japanese ship. At the bottom of the map are names of different places and measurements of distances from Japan, as well as the publication information.

A copy of the original 1688 version of the present 1708 printing was carried back to Europe by Engelbert Kaempfer, the German physician and explorer who spent two years in Japan (1690-92). Kaempfer’s map had a significant impact on later European cartographic endeavours.