Mandy Loves Lanvin
Map Library: Nihon Kaizan Choriku Zu
Object Lesson Map Library: Nihon Kaizan Choriku Zu
Image originally posted by Mengyaoc. (Thank you!)
I was initially drawn to this map for aesthetic reasons, I find the colors used and stylized format quite beautiful and I'm sure it was even more magnificent when it was first produced. Coupling this with the great detail and plenitude of information about travel routes, this map must have be have been quite valuable. It also has been kept in immaculate condition, which is just another testament to its value.
On the other hand, because of the stylization or perhaps just because of inaccuracy, it's actually quite difficult to identify respective landmasses as we are used to seeing them on maps like Mercator Projections. It appears that the map begins in East and Southeast Asia on the Right, (marked 'east' by the large b/w kanji) and shows trading routes from there to South and Central Asia (where apparently there is a depiction of Mount Neru encircled in yellow) and then even over to what looks like Europe and Africa, though these areas are particularly distorted, likely due to incomplete information about the region.
The small circles with rotating paper circles on top of them at the bottom left of the map also intrigued me. I asked the curator about them and he suggested that they were for keeping track of the tides. Now, I'm no sailor, but I wonder how this factored into the the usage of the map. As far as I can tell, there is no information detailing water depth, but I suppose as a sailor you just know these things? I know tidal information is important for docking in harbor, but I believe it also influences ocean current? Perhaps this information actually is contained somewhere on the map and I just can't read it.
This map was also noteworthy because of the way trade routes were prominently depicted. I've seen other people mention they looked like subway lines, listed in different colors with clearly defined 'stops', and you know, they really do! I wish I was able to read the key to see what each permutation of these routes stood for. It seems a bit bizarre though, how regularly spaced each of these 'stops' is along these trade routes. I wonder if instead the dots were meant to signify a certain unit of distance between two dots, not an actual trading town. This would be useful for traders to approximate the actual distance from one place to another because it details the length of the route instead of just having to ballpark guess by looking at the map. It's like the original Mapquest!
Map Library: Nihon Kaizan Choriku Zu
Object Lesson Map Library: Nihon Kaizan Choriku Zu
Image originally posted by Mengyaoc. (Thank you!)
I was initially drawn to this map for aesthetic reasons, I find the colors used and stylized format quite beautiful and I'm sure it was even more magnificent when it was first produced. Coupling this with the great detail and plenitude of information about travel routes, this map must have be have been quite valuable. It also has been kept in immaculate condition, which is just another testament to its value.
On the other hand, because of the stylization or perhaps just because of inaccuracy, it's actually quite difficult to identify respective landmasses as we are used to seeing them on maps like Mercator Projections. It appears that the map begins in East and Southeast Asia on the Right, (marked 'east' by the large b/w kanji) and shows trading routes from there to South and Central Asia (where apparently there is a depiction of Mount Neru encircled in yellow) and then even over to what looks like Europe and Africa, though these areas are particularly distorted, likely due to incomplete information about the region.
The small circles with rotating paper circles on top of them at the bottom left of the map also intrigued me. I asked the curator about them and he suggested that they were for keeping track of the tides. Now, I'm no sailor, but I wonder how this factored into the the usage of the map. As far as I can tell, there is no information detailing water depth, but I suppose as a sailor you just know these things? I know tidal information is important for docking in harbor, but I believe it also influences ocean current? Perhaps this information actually is contained somewhere on the map and I just can't read it.
This map was also noteworthy because of the way trade routes were prominently depicted. I've seen other people mention they looked like subway lines, listed in different colors with clearly defined 'stops', and you know, they really do! I wish I was able to read the key to see what each permutation of these routes stood for. It seems a bit bizarre though, how regularly spaced each of these 'stops' is along these trade routes. I wonder if instead the dots were meant to signify a certain unit of distance between two dots, not an actual trading town. This would be useful for traders to approximate the actual distance from one place to another because it details the length of the route instead of just having to ballpark guess by looking at the map. It's like the original Mapquest!