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Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era
![Tōto Shitaya ezu. [Copy 1], 1857; 安政 (Ansei) 4](https://digitize.library.ubc.ca/files/2022/07/cdm.tokugawa.1-0223013.0001full-125x100.jpg)
Tokyo maps of Edo Period
The Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era, one of the world’s largest collections of maps and guidebooks of the Japanese Tokugawa period (ca. 1600-1868), focuses on privately published and travel-related maps and guides. This unique collection has over 666,000 item views and around 18,000 item downloads, mainly from China and the U.S. In this post, […]
Images of Foreign Culture in Edo-Period Japan
In a previous post, we introduced some maps from the Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era Collection. UBC Library’s Rare Books and Special Collections holds one of the world’s largest collections of maps and guidebooks of the Japanese Tokugawa period, ca. 1600-1868. This collection does not consist simply of maps of Japan. It also has […]
Maps in Open Collections
The Digitization Centre has digitized several collections of maps, as well as several collections that contain maps among other materials. This post provides a summary of those collections, showcasing some of our favourite maps from Open Collections! Greater Vancouver Regional District Planning Department Land Use Maps This collection contains more than 1,800 maps of the […]
Subjects In Our Collections: Asian Studies
Our digital collections cover a wide range of topics and disciplines that you can explore through Open Collections. Among our thousands of digital items, you can find materials to support your research, your teaching, and even your imagination. Below, we’ve selected a few of our collections that may be helpful when researching topics related to […]
Explore Open Collections: Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era
Maps are not just for marking land. Through maps, you can travel back in time to understand how society was structured, how a region was recognized, the power structures of that time, and other cultural and societal aspects of the place being represented. The Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era Collection is a treasure trove […]
Digital Collections Reading List
When we came across a “tribute list” in our collections, we couldn’t stop thinking about the Hunger Games trilogy—(Hey! Suzanne Collins! We’d be pretty into another series of districts set on a different continent, or in another time period)—and we realized there were a lot of other times we thought of books related to the collection, too. […]
Namazu-e Prints
Hidden within some of our collections you can find content which you might not expect to see! A great example of this can be found in our collection of Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era which features a sub-collection of disaster prints, made up of several dozen prints which describe disasters that occurred in Japan. While some of […]
Digital Initiatives on Flickr!
You may not know it, but a few months ago we set up a Flickr account! We’ve chosen several collections that we feel have really great images and have started to upload them so that more people can see the work that we’re doing. If you see any images you like, we’d love for you […]
御開港横濵之全圖 Gokaikō Yokohama no zenzu (Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era)
In 1858, Japan signed the Ansei Five-Power Treaties with the United States, Great Britain, Russia, Netherlands, and France. The following year in 1859, the port of Yokohama opened to foreign trade as specified in these treaties. 御開港横濵之全圖 Gokaikō Yokohama no zenzu marks the opening of the port and depicts ships from the five nations […]
地理 初歩 – Elementary Geography to learn by heart
Kaisei chiri shoho ansha no zu: Another gorgeous woodcut from the Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era digital collection (almost all of which could probably be featured here..) We were particularly struck by the almost abstract beauty in this piece’s mix of cartographic and illustrated blocks. Its intended function remains elusive, although the title suggests an instructional purpose. […]
