1919 Hayashi Plan of Osaka, Japan with Pictorial Vignettes

This is a densely graphic city map or plan of Osaka was prepared by Hayashi Keizo in 1919. It is notable above all for its colorful design and many illustrated vignettes. This map is emblematic of the cartographic style of the Taisho period, where color lithography was leveraged to create infographically dense maps that combined traditonal Japanese cartographic elements, western mapping models, and technical printing mastery.

A Closer Look

The phrase 'Kinki' (近畿) in the title is a synonym for Kansai, the region that includes Osaka, Kyoto, and several other cities in a tight constellation. The main part of the sheet consists of a city map or plan of Osaka, displaying the city's distinctive layout, crisscrossed by rivers and canals. These waterways and the bridges over them led to Osaka being dubbed 'the Venice of Japan' and the 'City of Water.' Many of these bridges date to the Edo period, when Osaka thrived on the rice trade and the financing of rice brokers (after World War II (1939 - 1945), many old bridges were reinforced or replaced with new construction at the same location and retaining the same name).

Osaka Castle (大阪城) and multiple modern military buildings and drill grounds are prominent at right. The legend includes symbols and lines denoting streetcars (電車), suburban light rail (電鐵線), interurban rail (鐵道), scenic spots and historical sites (名勝古跡), lighthouses, shrines, temples, schools, and post offices.

Black circles note the location of temples, shrines, markets, and other important public places. Though these often had a religious function, they were also places to congregate for entertainment, such as sumo wrestling, and for enjoying street food. Rectangular black boxes note train stations, using kana instead of kanji. White rectangular boxes typically are used for government offices, military sites, schools, and factories.

Small inset schematic maps appear at top, charting the course of the electric rail line to Minoh (箕面), and at bottom, likewise tracing the Nankai Electric Railway (南海電車), linking Osaka with Wakayama. A box at right also mentions the Keihan Electric Railway (京都電車線). Surrounding the map, Hayashi employs a creative method for representing the networks of suburban and regional train lines, by continuing them from the main map along a series of illustrated vignettes, mostly depicting the countryside around Osaka, including famous shrines, temples, hot springs, mountains, waterfalls, and even a brewery (麥酒會社). These features suggest that the map was intended for both tourists visiting Osaka and locals interested in a daytrip to escape the city.

The vibrancy of the recto map and illustrations carries over on the verso, which, though not colored, includes eye-catching advertisements and photographs of landmarks and street scenes in Osaka.

Modern Metropolis

Osaka was booming in the period that this map was produced. With both public and private money pouring in during the Meiji period, Osaka became a hub for both light and heavy manufacturing. The growing city attracted migrants from throughout the Kansai region and beyond, including a large number of Koreans, who often came unwillingly or were lured into exploitative work with phony contracts. They settled in Tsuruhashi (鶴橋, at right, towards bottom) and many stayed after Korea gained independence in 1945; Tsuruhashi remains the largest Korean neighborhood in Japan. The preponderance of streetcar lines gives the viewer a sense of the bustling atmosphere of the city. Unfortunately, Osaka's industrial development made the city a target for repeated American bombing raids during World War II. Although the layout of the city is basically the same today, most of the prewar buildings, including the castle, have been replaced by postwar construction.

Publication History and Census

This map was designed and published by Hayashi Keizo (林景造), publishing through his firm Hayashi Kinsatsudō (林金札堂), in 1919. This work and a very similarly titled map (大阪市街明細地図 近畿名所遊覧), likely using the same basic design, were issued by Hayashi between roughly 1915 and 1923, though examples are rare now regardless of edition. The present edition does not appear in any catalog listings, even in Japan, while examples from other years are held by the National Diet Library, the Nichibunken (International Research Center for Japanese Studies), and the University of California Berkeley.