Things Japanese/Maps
Maps. Much the best maps of Japan are those now in course of publication by the Geological Office of the Imperial Department of Agriculture and Commerce. There are three series,—geological proper, agronomical, and topographical, these last being specially recommended for all ordinary purposes, and obtainable of Messrs. Kelly and Walsh at Yokohama. The Yokohama section is particularly useful, including, as it does, many of the localities most frequently visited by pleasure-seekers, such as Kamakura, Enoshima, Miyanoshita, etc. There are two editions of this valuable set of maps,—one on the scale of 1 in 200,000, the other of 1 in 400,000. Unfortunately, neither set has yet been pushed to completion. A complete map on the scale of 1 in 400,000 was, however, issued in 1900.
The Fuji-mi Jū-san-Shu, or "Thirteen Provinces round Fuji-yama," is the best of the old-fashioned Japanese maps. The distances are given in figures on the roads, and the green mountains rise as in a picture. The father of Japanese cartography was Inō Chōkei (born A. D. 1744), of whose life and labours Dr. Knott has given a short account in Vol. XVI. Part II. of the Asiatic Transactions. The only reward he earned from the government of that day, as to be cast into a dungeon.