1999 Maki Cartoon Map of Fifth Avenue and Midtown, New York City

This is a unique and whimsical Japanese-language map of Manhattan made by the now-closed Japanese luxury department store, Maki Fifth Avenue (五番街マキ). It was designed to highlight a wide variety of attractions around Manhattan (south of 59th St.) for shoppers to engage in after visiting the Maki store.

A Closer Look

The map's Japanese title ('Fifth Avenue Maki Special New York after Five Map') refers to the store's hours, 9:00 am to 5:00 pm. Recommendations are provided for shoppers to entertain themselves in the evening, after the store closed. The scope on the first page stretches from Columbus Circle and Central Park at top to the New York Public Library at bottom, while the back (verso) covers Greenwich Village and Soho between Canal and 14th St.

As the cartoon and text (家族で楽しむ) at top-left indicate, the attractions highlighted were geared towards families, with a focus on restaurants, cafes, shopping, museums, libraries, theaters, and other cultural undertakings, although plenty of bars, clubs, and adult entertainment venues are also indicated. Important practical information such as the telephone numbers and locations of hospitals and the Japanese Consulate (at 48th St. and Park Avenue) are also noted. The verso includes a similar depiction of the Village and Soho. Recognizable New York shops and venues from the era are well represented, such as Duane Reade, F.A.O. Schwartz, the Strand Bookstore, and the Film Forum.

This map was probably intended primarily for Japanese corporate executives and workers in the Tri-State area. The information about hotels that is included suggests that tourists were another intended audience.

Japanese-Americans in New York City

The Japanese population of New York City and the Tri-State Area has historically paled in comparison to that of the West Coast and Hawaii, and has been of a relatively wealthy, elite, and professional background, with some working-class immigrants laboring in the shipping and restaurant industries. Unlike several other cities in the U.S., there has never been a clear and consistent Japantown in New York, though in the pre-World War II period there were pockets of Japanese residents along the west side of Manhattan from Lincoln Square up to Morningside Heights.

The first Japanese immigrants to New York arrived in 1876, but soon afterwards Japanese immigration was tightly restricted and the population of first- and second-generation immigrants (Issei and Nisei) did not exceed 5,000 until the post-World War II period. Still, prominent Japanese-Americans in the city aimed to establish institutions to foster community support, in particular the chemist Takamine Jōkichi (高峰譲吉), who helped found both the Nippon Club and the Japan Society. Although Japanese Americans in New York were not interned en masse during the Second World War, they did suffer discrimination and leading members of the community were interned at Ellis Island.

In the postwar period, Japanese businesses began sending executives and white-collar workers to New York City for fixed periods, providing for a consistent but somewhat transient population of Japanese-Americans who have lived in communities in Manhattan, Queens, New Jersey, and Westchester County.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by an unattributed artist and published in April 1999 for Maki, a Japanese department store located at 575 Fifth Avenue (at 47th St.) in New York City (c. 1976 – 2000). It is not known to exist in any institution's holdings and has no known history on the market.