1877 Kobayashi Map of Kyushu, Japan

An impressive 1877 Kobayashi Kanetaka map of the island of Kyushu and several smaller neighboring islands in Japan, published by Aoki Sukekiyo of Dōmeisha. It was part of a series of highly detailed maps of Japan's regions, and the involvement of Aoki and Dōmeisha strongly suggest that it was intended for educational purposes.

A Closer Look

Coverage embraces the island of Kyushu and surrounding islands, including Tsushima (the top part of which is incorporated in an inset at top). Details include Buddhist temples, Shinto shrines, roads, administrative boundaries, telegraph lines and offices, lighthouses, buoys, mountains, waterways, post offices, and ports. A foreword, at left, discusses the area of Japan's territory, the landscape of Kyushu, and editorial choices in the map's production.

At bottom-right is a table of prefectural and county jurisdictions (府縣管轄表) that records information such as administrative centers, distances of various counties from Tokyo, population, and military garrisons. Notably, although the Ryukyu Domain (琉球藩) does not appear on the map, it is listed in this table, reflecting its ambiguous status at the time (discussed below). Several small islands just to the south of Kyushu are only partially depicted, such as Tanegashima, or not depicted at all, such as Yakushima.

Traces of the Tokugawa Past

The Meiji Era was defined by a rapid succession of reforms, including several rounds of administrative reorganization and recategorization. Remnants of the old Tokugawa system can still be witnessed here, such as the indication of former Tokugawa administrative offices (there were holdovers of the Tokugawa social class system as well; notably, both Kobayashi and Aoki are noted as being former samurai 士族). But in the three years after this map's publication, much of the remnants of Tokugawa administration were done away with. The internal organization of prefectures was standardized, with subprefecture divisions being cities (市) and districts (郡), which were themselves divided into towns (町) and villages (村).

'Disposition' of the Ryukyus

As mentioned above, the status of the Ryukyu Islands was somewhat ambiguous at this time, though by 1877 they had been annexed by Japan in all but name. In the territorial retrenchment following the Meiji Restoration, the Ryukyus presented special difficulties since, unlike Hokkaido, the Kurils, and Karafuto, which were sparsely inhabited by indigenous Ainu peoples, the Ryukyu Kingdom was long-established, wealthy, and diplomatically connected with China. Although the Ryukyu Kingdom was nominally under the control of the daimyo of Satsuma (vassals of the Tokugawa) from 1609, it retained a wide degree of autonomy and maintained tributary ties with China. After 1868, the Meiji government rapidly shifted from a feudal-style system of patronage to a territorial conception of the nation-state. When a group of sailors from the Miyako Islands were shipwrecked and then murdered by Aborigines on Taiwan in 1871 (the Mudan Incident), the Meiji government took the opportunity to assert its sovereignty over the furthest reaches of the Ryukyus.

The following year (1872), Ryukyu was designated as a domain (藩), even as this designation was being eliminated in the Japanese home islands. In 1874, Japan launched a punitive expedition against Taiwan, ostensibly as a response to the Mudan Incident but, in reality, to test Japan's growing military capabilities and the resolve of the Qing to defend Taiwan. The Qing were forced to acknowledge Ryukyuans as subjects of Japan. Late the following year (1875), the Japanese government decided to 'dispose' (処分) Ryukyu, increasing its administrative and military presence on the islands. By 1879, what remained of the Ryukyu Kingdom was formally annexed by Japan. Despite local resistance, vehement protest by Qing China, and efforts by the United States to mediate a negotiation, Japan's control of the Ryukyus was secured and efforts were immediately undertaken to eliminate distinct local cultures, languages, and identity.

Educating the Nation

This map was very likely intended for classroom use. One of the first major acts of the reformers who led the Meiji Restoration (1868) was to introduce compulsory primary education on the Prussian-German model, a move that was not entirely popular in a country that was still primarily agrarian. This included the creation of 'normal schools' (師範学校) to train teachers, national-level oversight of curriculum and standards, and a strong emphasis on national identity. Maps such as the present one were used to educate children about the geography of Japan and to build a strong sense of shared identity. Soon after the institution of compulsory primary education, Japan also mandated universal male conscription, prefaced by boys' physical education in schools, which came to resemble military drills. Especially after the Imperial Rescript on Education in 1890, schools became a major vehicle for inculcating extreme reverence for the emperor and a hard-edged, even militant, nationalism. At the same time, the economic benefits of universal education were manifest, as Japan quickly became the first non-Western country to industrialize.

Publication History and Census

This map was edited by Kobayashi Kanetaka (小林監峻) and published by Aoki Sukekiyo (青木輔清) of Dōmeisha (同盟舎) in 1877 (Meiji 10). It was part of a larger series of eight maps of Japan's regions and prefectures, displayed in a similar style but not all produced or published by the same makers (Kobayashi was also editor of a map of Shikoku and Chūgoku). This map is only independently cataloged among the holdings of the University of California Berkeley, while the National Diet Library notes it among a catalog listing for all eight maps in the series.