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Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
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Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era
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. […]
Bankoku-sozu
This double-sided Japanese woodcut displays a world map on the front and illustrated examples of the peoples of the world on the verso. It exemplifies the Bankoku-sozu (“complete maps of the peoples of the world”) style of cartography influenced by European techniques and geographic knowledge in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It can be found in the Japanese […]
Disaster Prints
Woodcuts by unknown authors from “Disaster Prints,” a part of the Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Period digital 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. 1600-1867. Most of this collection was acquired from George H. Beans, the original collector, and […]
