Yamashiro no Kuni ezu
Map of Yamashiro Region, Japan (1800s) |
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| Date: | 1800 |
| Author: | Unknown |
| Dwnld: | Full Size (13.37mb) |
| Source: | Library of Congress |
| Print Availability: | |
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| See our Prints Page for more details | |
This map isn't part of any series, but we have other maps of Japan that you might want to check out.
Beautiful map, but I couldn't begin to describe it.
Little help over here?
Nijō castle and the Imperial palace (the red areas within the city) are labeled as such, which should be enough to identify the city as Kyoto.
This is a map of the Yamashiro region, which is the precursor to the modern day Kyoto prefecture. In this map, east is up. The yellow area is the city of Kyoto, and the red square is the imperial palace. The smaller red area just below it is Nijo palace. The only visible temple is likely Kiyomizu temple. It’s interesting to see just how different the modern water features are from this map.
Many thanks, KC, for your help in interpreting. I wouldn’t have known where to start. I’m embarrassingly unfamiliar with most non-western cartographic tropes.
Are you a historian or were you able to deduce this because of translating the map?
Either way; many thanks for your info.
Kind regards,
-t59K
Mostly from translating the map and knowing the geography of the area, having been to Kyoto a number of times. Some other points…
The ovals are smaller villages, and the rectangles are larger ones. Many of these place names survive to this day, but are districts of Kyoto city as opposed to individual villages.
The largest, unconnected rectangles are names of districts called gun, some of which still exist, some of which are now cities, but some of which have been absorbed into Kyoto. The villages are colour-coded according to the gun in which they are located.
I found nowhere where the word “Kyoto” or “Miyako” is written on this map. I guess it’s important enough that anybody looking at the map would know right away that the yellow area is Kyoto. After all, that’s where the imperial palace is. Kyoto was the capital of Japan at this time, and had been for over 1000 years.