Japanese Maps Collection (Manchester Digital Collections)

This collection draws on cartographic materials from the University of Manchester Library Japanese Collection and the Maps Collection. It holds roughly 60 items: mostly maps, charts and atlases, and a limited number of material classified as "chishi", or topography (encyclopaedias, guidebooks, prints, surveys) that include maps or are otherwise related to cartography. The vast majority of items in the collection are printed, and they were produced in Japan during the Tokugawa or Edo period (1603-1868), with some exceptions, such as a Japanese tourist map of Japan published in 1897, and some maps of Japan published in Britain between the end of the eighteenth century and the end of the nineteenth century. Some of the maps were digitised in 2016 with a project led by Dr. Erica Baffelli (The University of Manchester) and funded by The Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation and The Japan Foundation. The rest of the relevant cartographic materials are being digitised and will be added in due course. All the items have been investigated, and all the item descriptions have been edited and expanded, as part of the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions Project "Travel in Tokugawa Period Japan (1603-1868): Identity, Nation and Social Transformation" led by Dr. Sonia Favi (2019-2021). The project, funded by the European Commission, uses the Japanese Collection to look into the social and cultural history of Tokugawa Japan (1603-1868), through the lens of travel history.