1875 Meiji 8 Japanese Map of the East Indies and Southeast Asia

A scarce Meiji 8, 1875 Japanese issue plan or map of Southeast Asia and the East Indies. Centered on the Mekong River, this map covers from Taiwan to Java and from Pegu (Burma) to the Philippines, including all of modern day Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Sumatra, Borneo, and the Philippines, as well as parts of Burma and China. Inland detail is primarily restricted to political borders, often ill-defined, and riverways, but major cities, such as Bangkok, Guangzhou, and Rangoon, are noted. Vivid color coding identifies various polities: China, British Burma, Independent Burma, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaya, Malacca, British Borneo, and the Philippines. At top-right, the Ryukyu Islands are outlined but not color coded, perhaps because of their uncertain status at this point (Japan would annex them in 1879).

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared to illustrate an extremely rare Meiji Era Japanese travelogue describing a voyage to Thailand or Siam. We have identified only two other examples of this map which are located in the archives of the Waseda University Library, Tokyo and the Kyoto University Library, Kyoto.