Reading a Map of Edo

Not all roads lead to Rome.

Reading the Map of Edo

            The Map of Edo was drawn around 1847, after a map by Takai Ranzan, by an unknown Japanese cartographer. Created less than ten years before Perry paved the way for open trade with Japan, this map displays the city of Edo in the late Tokugawa Period. The visual is quite detailed, and the main feature is the Edo Castle. Presumably, there would have been no single person denoted for the usage of the map, but perhaps it would have been limited to government officials and those with ties to the Shogunate. The crest of the Tokugawa Shogunate is prominently painted to signify the castle, and it close to the center of the page, drawing one’s attention to it immediately. Throughout the rest of the town, other crests, presumably signifying other daimyo families, are plotted in smaller quadrants. Running through the city are streets drawn in yellow and rivers and streams colored in blue. In the west of the map, a large plot of land (yet smaller than the Shogunate castle area) seems to be set aside for temples. The trees colored in green here also set this section of the map apart, since they are vividly colored and perhaps draw the eye’s attention after the Shogunate castle. The last large feature of the Edo Map is the Tokyo Bay to the south. A large ship is sailing with the Japanese Flag design on the sail.

            I propose two main purposes this map served when it was created. First, in the hands of the Tokugawa officials running Edo at the time, this map was likely used to plan strategic defenses of the city. Xenophobic sentiments were common in this era, and those like Aizawa Seishisai, who wrote a treatise on anti-foreignism in 1825, fueled these sentiments and called upon the nation to expel all foreigners and resist contact at all costs. One of his arguments for the sake of national defense captures an important feature of war-time organization: Seeking the best men (he excludes women in his language) and promoting them towards the center of the political gravity. He says, “By rewarding able men with government posts, political gravity is shifted from the periphery to the center; whereas if these men go unrecognized, political gravity remains on the periphery.” (Anti-Foreignism, 217) With a map locating all of the important families in Edo, finding such men of ability and status would have been made an easier task than just wandering the city.

            The bay and the ship draw my attention to Japan’s fleet, a topic we haven’t covered in detail yet. Foreigners would have to sail, so was this part of the preparations of xenophobes like Aizawa? Or would it only come to the forefront once Japan encountered Perry’s gunboat diplomacy? I would be interested to see a map of Edo ten years after the peace treaty to see if more of Tokyo Bay is depicted.