1904 Hakubunkan Map of Northeast Asia, Russo-Japanese War

Japan Pokes the Bear.

This is a rare 1904 Japanese map of Northeast Asia published by Hakubunkan during the Russo-Japanese War. It provides a highly-detailed overview of the seat of the war at a time when Japanese troops were making steady headway against Russian defenders.

A Closer Look

The map covers Northeast Asia from the Lesser Khingan Mountains (小興安岭山) and the Amur River (Heilongjiang) in the north to southern Japan to the Shandong Peninsula and southern Honshu (Shimonoseki and environs) in the south. Administrative divisions, roads and railways, maritime routes, telegraph lines (including submarine lines), cities, towns, key strategic points (樞要地), ports, fortifications, and lighthouses are indicated throughout. Waterways and mountains (prominently represented by hachures) are traced as well. The 'Willow Palisade' (here as 長柵), built during the Qing Dynasty to limit immigration to Manchuria, is also recorded.

A series of inset maps of several important cities are included at left, with Jilin (City, 吉林府, now 吉林市), Harbin (哈爾濱), Fengtian (奉天府, now Shenyang), and Yingkou (營口) at top-left and Vladivostok (浦潮斯德) and Port Arthur (旅順) at bottom-left. At the time of this map's publication, the Japanese had bottled up the Russian fleet at Port Arthur (see below) and won land battles at the Yalu River and Nanshan, though with significant casualties. Russia's strategy was to fight defensive battles until reinforcements could arrive via the Trans-Siberian Railway, still incomplete in one section, and from the Baltic Fleet; however, in both instances, reinforcements arrived too late and in too few numbers to overcome the Japanese attack.

Russo-Japanese War

The Russo-Japanese War, fought from February 8, 1904 - September 5, 1905, pitted Imperial Japan against Tsarist Russia over rival imperial ambitions in Manchuria and Korea. Both Russia and Japan had grand visions for the region. Russia traditionally had only one Pacific port, Vladivostok, which was operational only during the warm summer months. In 1898, Russia coerced China, then weakened after the First Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 1895), to lease them Port Arthur, a warm water port on the Liaodong Peninsula. They also negotiated a right-of-way to connect Port Arthur to the China Eastern Railway, which ran from nearby Jinzhou (Dalian, Dalniy) to Harbin, and ultimately linked up with the Trans-Siberian Railway. Russia, eager to expand southwards from Siberia, considered Port Arthur the cornerstone of a sphere of influence covering Manchuria and Korea. Japan had its own imperial ambitions and saw itself as the natural overlord in East Asia, particularly after their victory in the First Sino-Japanese War. Korea and Manchuria were also important to the Japanese as steppingstones into China, with its seemingly unlimited resources.

There was initially some attempt at negotiation between the imperialist powers, but Tsar Nicholas II arrogantly believed it impossible that Japan could challenge a major European power. Japan proved him wrong, launching a surprise attack on the Russian Eastern Fleet stationed at Port Arthur. The Russians were unable to defeat the Japanese at sea and steadily lost ground on land, despite imposing heavy losses on the Japanese. The costs of the war and simmering discontent forced the Tsar to negotiate and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt arbitrated a peace, confirmed by the Treaty of Portsmouth. The victory of Imperial Japan came as a surprise to international observers, being the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian over European power. The consequences transformed the balance of power and confirmed Japan as the pre-eminent power in East Asia.

The treaty recognized Japan's claims on Korea and called for the evacuation of Russian forces from Manchuria. Port Arthur was handed over to the Japanese, who renamed it Dairen, as was the southern section of the China Eastern Railway, which became known as the South Manchuria Railway. The company created to manage the railway, the South Manchuria Railway Company (Mantetsu), soon developed into a mega-conglomerate, overseeing hotels, mines, mills, power plants, and much more, that expanded Japanese influence in Manchuria to the point that it became a virtual colony. By the 1930s, Mantetsu was the largest company in Japan and by itself formed a significant portion of the Japanese economy.

Publication History and Census

This map was published on June 23, 1904 (Meiji 37) by Saiki Hirano (齋木寛直) of the firm Hakubunkan (博文館), having been printed by Mizutani Kagenaga (水谷景長). It was a supplement to the 19th issue of the Hakubunkan periodical titled True Accounts of the Russo-Japanese War (日露戰爭實記). The map is only independently cataloged by Stanford University and the Fukuoka City Museum. Several institutions in Japan and abroad hold partial runs of True Accounts of the Russo-Japanese War but it is unclear if the 19th issue or this supplemental map are included among them.

Cartographer

Hakubunkan (博文館; 1887 - present) is a prominent Japanese publishing company with origins in the Meiji era. The company was founded in Tokyo in 1887 by Ōhashi Sahei (大橋 佐平). Its name is an homage to the Japanese Prime Minister at the time and the architect of Japan's modernization Itō Hirobumi (1841 - 1909). The company's first successful publication was Nihon Taika Ronshū (日本大家論集), a literary journal appealing to Japan's growing, demi-Westernized urban middle class. Hakubunkan aimed for gaining the largest audience possible and kept publishing costs down by eschewing woodblock prints, making their works less attractive but more accessible to the general public. By the 1890s, the company had launched several subsidiaries and published some of the earliest Japanese magazines aimed at a general audience, including Taiyō> ('The Sun,' 太陽) and Literary Club (文芸倶楽部), publishing many of the leading Japanese literary figures of the era. The company's output often had a strong nationalistic tone, so much so that it was shut down during the American occupation after the Second World War. It was allowed to reconstitute at the end of the 1940s under different leadership, though it was broken up into six smaller companies, then reorganized as three companies, which then reintegrated as Hakubunkan Shinsha (博文館新社). Nowadays, the company largely produced journals and diaries, with magazines having become unprofitable.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good. Slight wear and verso stabilization on a few fold lines, with slight infill.

References

OCLC 1013209286. Fukuoka City Museum 備品番号: 2006P00955.