1917 Nakashima Map of Hokkaido, Japan

Colonial Exploitation and Development in Hokkaido.

This is a visually impressive 1917 Nakashima Saburō map of Hokkaido, Japan. It presents Hokkaido as the focus of extensive Japanese colonization efforts, including the heavy use of penal labor, designed to facilitate coal mining, agricultural production, and other industries.

A Closer Look

Oriented towards the northwest, this map displays the entirety of Hokkaido, several small surrounding islands, and a portion of Kunashiri (國後) Island, the southernmost of the Kuril or Chishima Islands. It is remarkably detailed, noting administrative boundaries, roads, railways (completed and under construction), light rail, streetcars (in the inset maps), mines, hot springs, police stations, post offices and other postal facilities, courts, military settlements (屯田兵村), and garrisons. On the coast and sea, ports, lighthouses, maritime routes, and undersea telegraph cables are indicated. Mountains are recorded with hachures while other shading notes various types of terrain and land use, with red grid lines referring to specified colonial zones (殖民區劃地) all along the center and north of the island. Areas for salmon, sardine, herring, and cod fishing, as well as kelp farming, are also denoted, demonstrating these industries' importance for the island's economy.

Five insets surround the map, including city plans of Sapporo (札幌), Asahikawa (旭川), Hakodate (函館), and Otaru (小樽), along with a chart of the Kuril / Chishima Islands. In an editor's note at top-right, Nakashima explains the conception of the map as being accurate, up-to-date, and useful for the public, emphasizing rail lines and colonial agricultural areas. Distinctively and rather charmingly, the scale is presented within an illustration of a fish at right.

Hokkaido as Colonial Testing Ground

Prior to the Meiji Restoration, Hokkaido had been under the control of the Tokugawa-aligned Matsumae, with the Tokugawa presence becoming more pronounced in the early 19th century. In the wake of the Meiji Restoration in 1868, a Japanese 'Development Commission' (開拓使, which could also be translated as Colonization Office) and its American advisors set about planning means for extracting the island's abundant resources and settling farmer-colonists to displace the Ainu inhabitants of Hokkaido. The new Meiji government was also concerned about how to placate now-unemployed and potentially restive samurai, with land in Hokkaido being an appealing retirement option for many. Above all, the threat of an invasion by Tsarist Russia pushed the Meiji government to settle as many (Yamato) Japanese on Hokkaido as they could, as quickly as possible.

In the following decades, Hokkaido became something akin to the American frontier, where native peoples were forced into reservations to create free land for colonists, who themselves often came from the lower social classes of Japan (and later Korea). The island also resembled Australia in its early phase of British colonial rule, as widespread prison labor was also used as a means of enacting colonization. When Hokkaido was found to have abundant coal reserves, prisoners, including local Ainu, were forced to work in dangerous and dire conditions to extract the coal that powered Japan's industrialization.

Publication History and Census

This map was originally prepared by Nakashima Saburō (中嶋三郎) in 1914 (Meiji 3) and was updated regularly afterwards, here in the fifth edition published in 1917. It was published by Kojima Chiyomatsu (小島千代松) of the eponymous Kojima Taiseidō (小島大盛堂) bookshop in Hakodate and printed by the Seiundō Printing Office (青雲堂印刷所) in Tokyo. The present edition of the map is not present in institutional collections, while the National Diet Library (NDL) and Nichibunken (International Research Center for Japanese Studies) both hold earlier editions, and the NDL also holds later editions.

Cartographers

Nakashima Saburō (中嶋三郎; fl. c. 1913 - 1919) was a cartographer based in Hakodate, Hokkaido. Only three known maps are attributed to him, all published by the Kojima Taiseidō (小島大盛堂) bookshop, a survey maps of Hakodate, a street map of the same, and a map of Hokkaido emphasizing railways and colonial land settlement.   Further Details...

Kojima Chiyomatsu (小島千代松; July 1865 - November 1927) was a Japanese bookseller and publisher based in Hakodate on Hokkaido at the turn of the 20th century. Kojima was born in Ōmi Province (now Shiga Prefecture) in central Japan. His parents died at a young age and he went to apprentice at a merchant's trading house at age nine. At age sixteen, he moved to Tokyo and tried selling kimono and opening his own grocery business but failed at both. Kojima then began peddling books to make ends meet and traveled widely throughout Japan, from Hokkaido to Ryukyu, to reach customers. Finally, in 1894, sensing the business opportunities on Japan's northern frontier, he settled in Hakodate and opened the Kojima Taiseidō (小島大盛堂) bookshop. Kojima quickly became a leading bookseller in the city and in August 1899 founded the Hakodate Booksellers Association (函館書籍商組合), of which he was elected as a director. The business continued to grow, with Kojima becoming the largest bookseller in Hokkaido, selling guidebooks, maps, postcards, and oiwake-bushi (traditional Japanese songs). In 1901, Kojima also began publishing his own guidebook for Hokkaido (北海道名所案内). During and after the Russo-Japanese War, given the proximity of the Russian threat for Hokkaido, Kojima found a ready audience for patriotic / nationalistic material. His publishing business could not compete with larger operations in the early Showa era and he instead returned exclusively to bookselling.   Further Details...

Condition

Average. Overall toning. A few minor verso repairs.