1863 Hosokawa Plan of Sakai, Osaka, Japan

This is an 1863 ukiyo-e woodblock plan or city map of Sakai, Osaka, Japan (now part of Osaka) by Hosokawa Yasuyoshi.

A Closer Look

Although cardinal directions appear at the four corners of the map, it does not have a single clear orientation as various labels and text throughout can be read when holding any side of the map. In the image above, we have oriented it towards the southwest so that the legend and most of the other large blocks of text will be oriented for easiest reading. This is also the orientation with which one would view Sakai from Osaka, its larger neighbor to the northeast, and from Kyoto, the imperial capital further to the northeast. The city, with a long history as an important port, sits on Osaka Bay and is surrounded and intersected by waterways, both natural and manmade, including the Yamato River (大和川) at bottom.

Streets are labelled throughout, as are bridges, temples, shrines, villages, hills and mountains, and other features, including those lying in the distance to the west, across Osaka Bay. Public buildings are color-shaded as explained in the legend at bottom, with red used for temples and shrines with goshuin (御朱印), distinctive seal stamps for visitors that are a traditional souvenir, pink for temples and shrines without goshuin, yellow for city streets, and fairly similar shades of greenish-blue for samurai residences (武家屋鋪), the names of villages (村名), and waterways (海川池). Aside from goshuin temples and shrines, Sakai is also known for the keyhole-shaped tombs or kofun of several very early Japanese emperors (4th - 5th centuries CE) on its outskirts, seen here at left and top-left. Boxes of text at bottom-right include a table of distances within the city as well as to nearby cities (including Osaka and Kyoto), a list of famous sites in Sakai, a table of distinctive local products and foods, and a list of the goshuin temples and shrines mentioned above.

Historical Context

Sakai has long been an important city, as the presence of the imperial tombs mentioned above attests to. In the medieval period it was a major port and in the 14th - 16th centuries it became a wealthy city due in large part to international trade. Europeans such as Francis Xavier were impressed by Sakai and compared its wealth, maritime orientation, and governance structure with Venice. While the 17th century was beneficial for Japan overall, seeing the consolidation of power under the Tokugawa and the end of incessant civil war, it was detrimental for Sakai. In late 1614, Tokugawa forces besieged Osaka, the stronghold of the Toyotomi clan which had preceded them, and in the process Sakai was completely destroyed by fire in 1615. Although rebuilt, the city could not fully recapture its earlier splendor as the Tokugawa adopted strict isolationist policies, strictly limiting foreign trade.

The contours of the city changed considerably over the Tokugawa Period as the Yamato River silted up and portions of the old city moat were filled in. Tokugawa rule also left many tangible marks on the city's geography, including the large number of samurai residences seen here, likely the result of the city being in the heartland of the Toyotomi clan and therefore being seen as unreliable or suspect. In the late Tokugawa period, foreigners returned as Japan was pried open to international trade, and Sakai was almost designated as the open port adjacent to Osaka, as Yokohama was for Tokyo, but instead Hyōgo (Kōbe) was chosen, drastically altering the subsequent history of both Hyōgo and Sakai. As Japan sank into a civil war between the Tokugawa and imperial 'restoration' forces, Sakai witnessed a notorious anti-foreign incident in 1868 when eleven French sailors were killed by a group of samurai from Tosa Domain.

Publication History and Census

This map was drawn by Hosokawa Yasuyoshi (細川源恭義) with calligraphic text by Shishi Kōsai (獅々工齋), and a list of nine publisher-booksellers in Edo, Osaka, and Sakai listed at bottom-left, including Suharaya Mohē and the Kawachiya publishing clan of Osaka. The only known work of Hosokawa and Shishi, it is a revised edition, prepared in 1863 (Bunkyū 3) and printed in 1864, of an earlier 1851 edition of the map, itself is inspired by and partly based on a highly detailed, multi-sheet map, simply titled Large Map of Sakai (堺大繪圖), printed in 1689 to document Sakai's revival the 1615 fire.

For the present map, the emphasis on goshuin temples and shrines and the distribution of the map in several cities suggests that it was intended for tourists and religious pilgrims to Sakai. Within Japan, the map is held by the National Museum of Japanese History, Kobe University, and the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken). Outside of Japan, it is held by the University of California Berkeley and the University of Michigan, while Stanford University holds the earlier 1851 edition.