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萬國地誌畧暗射掲圖 / 亜非利加之部 [Topographical Record of the Nations / Africa]: 萬國地誌畧暗射掲圖 / 亜非利加之部 [Topographical Record of the Nations / Africa]

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  • Title:
    萬國地誌畧暗射掲圖 / 亜非利加之部 [Topographical Record of the Nations / Africa]: 萬國地誌畧暗射掲圖 / 亜非利加之部 [Topographical Record of the Nations / Africa]
  • Author: 三宅秀一編 [Shūichi MIYAKE]
  • Subjects: School
  • Description: Meiji 9 [1876]. "An exceedingly rare wall map of Africa, being a very early work of educational cartography of the Meiji Era, whereupon the Japanese school curriculum was radically transformed to encourage students to learn about overseas lands, an integral part of the period’s dramatic socio-economic transformation of Japan; by the cartographer Shūichi Miyake and published in Osaka by Morimoto Tasuke - a stellar example with lovely original colours and original mounting. The present, exceedingly rare, large format educational map of Africa was published in Osaka in 1876, early in the Meiji Era (1868- 1912), when Japan’s school curriculum was dramatically transformed to encourage students to learn about the world abroad, following centuries of national isolationist policies. The lithographed map showcases all of Africa, with major rivers and lakes and mountain ranges depicted according to recent geographic knowledge. Major countries and regions are outlined in bright, beautiful hues, including the Cape Colony, Transvaal, East Africa, the Horn of Africa, Sudan, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Senegal, West Africa and Angola. Indeed, while some colonies/countries were then well defined in the global consciousness, in this, the period before the Berlin Conference (1884-5), whereupon the European powers divided the continent between them, the political nature of most parts of Africa remained ambiguous. While the overall physical depiction of the continent is familiar to the modern eye, the interior regions still feature many enigmatic areas. While the Great Lakes are shown to exist, they are not outlined accurately. Additionally, sun-like symbols denote the locations of some major cities, such as Cairo, Algiers, Addis Ababa and Cape Town, etc. One will immediately notice that the mapped area features no text whatsoever. This is intentional, as consistent with the Japanese fondness for ‘rote memorization’, students would have been expected to pre-learn the names of the major features on the map, and then recite them as the teacher pointed to the places on the map. As such, the map would have assumed the role of a ‘live prompting aid’ as opposed to being the fount of knowledge in and of itself. Certainly, if employed correctly, this system of learning would prove most effective. The present map of Africa was made as part of a set of maps of the six inhabited continents (Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Australasia) called 亜非利加之部 [Topographical Record of the Nations], made by the cartographer Shūichi Miyake, and published in Osaka by Morimoto Tasuke. Miyake was an illustrator of diverse publications associated with the Tasuke house in the 1870s. Cartography was not his focus, but in addition the Topographical Record of the Nations he made a map of Japan, in 1878. The present map is exceedingly rare, and as an expensive work it would have had been made in only very limited production, while its large size and fragile nature would have ensured a very low survival rate. We can trace only a single institutional example, held by the National Diet Library (Tokyo), as part of a full set of the maps of the Topographical Record of the Nations. We cannot trace any sales records for any of the maps from the set, save for the map of Asia that accompanies the present offering. The Meiji Revolution and Education The present map appeared during the early stages of Meiji Era (1868-1912), which saw the most rapid and radical socio-economic transformation of any nation in world history. In the 1850s, American-led foreign pressure compelled the long ruling (but ailing) Shogunate regime to reluctantly open the country to international trade, following a three-century-long official policy of isolation. In the wake of the regime change that installed the Meiji imperial administration, in 1868, it suddenly became official policy to embrace the outside world with gusto. Japan rapidly adopted Western-style industrial methods, and in only a single generation transformed itself from having an industrial profile based upon agriculture and handcrafts to being one of the most advanced modern economies in the world. Whereas inquiry into foreign lands was traditionally discouraged, the Japanese people now thirsted for information and products from distant shores, spawning a great flowering of print culture on foreign subjects that included maps, travel logs and scientific works on Europe, America, Africa, Australia, and the rest of Asia. In line with this social-economic revolution, the Meiji regime radically altered the national school curriculum to encourage learning about overseas countries. Significant amounts of both public and private funds were spent on new textbooks, pictures and maps showcasing faraway lands. While many of these works were either translation of, or copied from, Western antecedents, many, like the present work, were modified in style to give them a distinctly Japanese flair. The present work, appeared only 8 years after the beginning of the Meiji Era, making it a remarkably early example of a Japanese international education map, especially notable due to is great size and attractive production. The result of these changes to the Japanese education system ensured that for generations thereafter Japanese people tended to be curious about foreign countries, with those with the means often going to great lengths to travel to see with their own eyes what they once saw in textbooks or on maps." (Alexander Johnson and Dasa Pahor, 2022) [Re: As part of the set of 6 continents:] National Diet Library: YG913 / 21624663.
  • Publisher: Morimoto Tasuke
  • Creation Date: 1876
  • Language: English
  • Source: David Rumsey Historical Map Collection
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