Isles of Gold: Antique Maps of Japan - From Monitor-Data.com Store

Isles of Gold: Antique Maps of Japan

Isles of Gold: Antique Maps of Japan

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Manufacturer: Weatherhill
Author: Hugh Cortazzi
Binding: Hardcover
Publication Date: 1983-09
Publisher: Weatherhill
Label: Weatherhill
Number Of Pages: 196
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Worth Its Weight in Gold

2007-03-20
Sometimes you can just tell when a book is a labor of love, and "Isles of Gold" is definitely one of them. First things first, it is lavishly and profusely illustrated--there are 92 plates in all, most in color and all carefully reproduced and large enough that the reader can make out the neat little details (many of the plates fold out in order to achieve this effect). The maps themselves are something to behold. There are many types, both Japanese and European, overviews of the whole country as well as panoramic views of Japan's famous sites, maps fitting Japan into the larger context of the Buddhist cosmos as well as land survey results and city guides. As the book moves chronologically from the earlier maps to the mid-1800's, the accuracy increases of course, which is interesting in its own right. And yet the strange, unfamiliar, and implausible geographies of the earlier examples are as fascinating as they are incorrect (plus the European ones have all those funky sea monsters and mermaids and stuff, and the Japanese ones have their own cool quirks like islands of vampire vixens). In any case, almost all of them are aesthetically pleasing regardless of accuracy; indeed, some are practically works of art--including one by Hokusai himself.

All of this would be a chaotic embarrassment of riches though without the author's fine essay. He has taken what could be an arcane, technical subject and made it eminently interesting and accessible, and transformed what would have been a pleasing if incoherent visual barrage into a very pleasant and educational guided tour. Especially noteworthy is the manner in which he not only balances his attention between the efforts of European and Japanese cartographers (which is rare enough) but actually addresses their interaction, the cross-fertilization of their ideas and techniques, so that our clearer understanding today of the planet on which we live definitely comes across as the cross-cultural endeavor it indeed is. The author has been collecting these maps for years (many of the illustrations are from his collection), and he definitely deserves our thanks for sharing his enthusiasm and his favorite treasures with us in this beautiful book.

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