Review of Japan: Historical Images from the Cortazzi Collection at the Embassy of Japan

On the 9th July, I visited the Embassy of Japan in London to see JAPAN: Historical Images from the Cortazzi Collection, an exhibition of surveys and city plans of Japan that is currently running. As I am really interested in geography and am looking to study it further, this seemed like a great way to combine it with the study of Japan.

Once inside (and over my awe of the wonderful interior), we met Simon Wright, the Senior Coordinator for Cultural Affairs at the Embassy who co-curated the exhibition with Akira Hirano, Librarian at the Sainsbury Institute for the Study of Japanese Arts and Cultures in Norwich. (The images were originally donated to the Institute.) Simon gave us incredible insight into the planning and production of the exhibition.

Sir Hugh Cortazzi’s distinguished Foreign Office career culminated in his service as British Ambassador to Japan between 1980 and 1984. He and Lady Cortazzi started collecting the images in the 1960s and their relative affordability then was apparently what first started the collection!

It was interesting to note that none of the images were described as maps, though at first glance that is not what they seem. Most of the images are designed for inclusion in books, rather than for conventional navigation that a map might be used for.

The first category in the exhibition, Isles of Wonder, includes imagined European creations based on travellers’ testimonies, the authors having never visited Japan.

The images in the Visions of Edo section are again mostly fabricated. Some engravings of Edo (now Tokyo) look distinctly Chinese, with pagodas, or have distinctive European gardens. It was forbidden to show Edo Castle in detail and so most Edo city plans have a blank space with only the Tokugawa shogunate emblem depicted.

Under the Tokugawa shogunate, Japan operated a policy known as sakoku, with exit of Japanese and entry of foreigners mostly prohibited. Nagasaki was the only port open to foreigners.

The man-made island of Dejima (its kanji, 出島, literally means “protruding island”) was the single place of direct trade and exchange with Europeans during the Edo period. It was built in the bay of Nagasaki in 1634 by merchants in the area and was used by the Dutch as a trading post from 1641 until 1853. The images of this region in the A Closer Look at Kyushu section are therefore more accurate than those of places which foreigners had never seen.

Hokkaido is often completely omitted from the surveys, or is just a portion at the top of an image. Other landforms were dotted randomly around the region (on hearing stories from Spanish travellers.) Mythical locations, such as Isla de Plata, were also included in some surveys, shown as being in the north of Japan. Tanegashima – where first Portuguese sailors landed in 1543 – is often portrayed as being much larger than it actually is, as it was one of the few places which was familiar to the Europeans.

The Old Japanese Maps section shows more tourism-influenced maps, which became available as travel in Edo-period Japan was gradually deregulated. Information on trunk roads, sea routes, shrines and temples in places like Kamakura and Nikko were included to help those on pilgrimages.

Several of the Japanese-made images contain kokudaka information – land value determined by a koku of rice (how much rice to feed one person for one year.) Annual yields were used to determine the province’s taxation. Some images also recorded the distance from cities to Edo. Other images, those in the Old European Maps section, are thought by scholars to be based on those made by Gyoki, a Buddhist priest often credited as the first of Japanese mapmakers.

In making the European illustrations, there was much copying. Many Europeans explicitly referred to earlier publications about the region to make new images.

Abraham Ortelius’ (1527 – 1598) depictions of Japan were often inconsistent, changing from piece to piece and sometimes even within the same atlas.

Some main sources were the work of Arnoldus Montanus, (1625 – 1683)who was a Dutch author and teacher. The 1670 English translation of his 1669 Atlas Japannensis is on display in the exhibition and its descriptions of the activities of the Dutch East India Company were a definitive source of early Japanese life and landscapes. The Daiwa Foundation also has one of Montanus’ plans of Edo on display at Japan House.

Engelbert Kaempfer (1651 – 1716) was a German physician who spent time in Japan, making two extensive trips around the country in 1691 and 1692. His History of Japan became the chief source of Western knowledge about the country throughout the 18th century.

I asked Simon if there was any image he knew he definitely wanted to include in the display. He mentioned Abe Yasuyuki’s Banukoku Chikyu Yochi Zenzu, or Map of the World (1853), which puts a depiction of Japan in a global context. Despite Japan’s self-imposed isolation at the time, they evidently had sound knowledge of the rest of the world, judging by the relative accuracy of this image.

Overall, visiting the Embassy and seeing the exhibition was an amazing experience. Had I not been on a placement at the Daiwa Foundation, I would have never even known that it was on! It is well worth a visit – no matter what your interests in Japan are, the collection is a wonder in itself.

JAPAN: Historical Images from the Cortazzi Collection runs until the 18th July at the Embassy of Japan in London. The Embassy is open weekdays 09:30-17:30 (except bank holidays.) Admission is free, but photo ID is needed to enter the Embassy.

Japan: Historical Images from the Cortazzi Collection at the Embassy of Japan Maps of Japan from the Cortazzi Collection at the Sainsbury Institute

By Rachel Mumford, Hendon School