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New Map of Tokyo: Divided into Ninth Ri Sections for Measuring Distances, with 1,300 Chō References.

650.00€

Unique item

1 in stock

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Description

Matsunosuke NISHINOMIYA; G. NAKAMURA.

Tokyo: H. M. & Co., 1893.

Lithographed map on linen, 68 x 84,5 cm ( 26.7 x 33.3 inches), originally dissected into 32 segments, folded and mounted into red linen binding with lettering on the cover. An accompanying booklet with index of streets in inserted into a pocket on the inner side of the front wrapper. 12vo, 10 pp., paper wrappers with lettering (wrappers with lightt staining, map and booklet clean with only minor foxing, first and last page of the booklet age-toned).

 

An invaluable primary source record capturing Tokyo exactly midway through the transformative Meiji Restoration era. Published exclusively in English, this map serves as a vivid physical blueprint of a city transitioning from a sprawling, feudal samurai stronghold (Edo) into a heavily industrialized global metropolis.

The sheet represents a superb synthesis of Western geodetic standards and classical Meiji graphic precision. Rather than following traditional Japanese orientation layouts (which frequently placed the Imperial Palace at the absolute center regardless of true north), this grid is strictly oriented with North at the top, stabilized by an elegant, multi-pointed nautical compass rose floating in the Tokyo Bay quadrant.

The administrative partitioning documents the dismantling of the old feudal Daimyo estates. It maps a newly centralized municipal system, meticulously tracing out the grid boundaries of Tokyo’s historic wards—including Kanda, Nihonbashi, Asakusa, Honjo, Fukagawa, and Shiba—recasting the landscape for modern taxation, civil engineering, and international diplomacy.

The core technical asset of the map is its sophisticated dual-referencing framework, designed explicitly to resolve the labyrinthine topography of the city for foreign travelers:

• The “Ninth Ri” Distance Grid: The map is mathematically overlaid with a highly uniform grid system. Each square measures precisely one-ninth of a Japanese Ri (with 1 full Ri equaling roughly 2.44 English statute miles). Radiating systematically outward from the historic Nihonbashi Bridge—the designated the map margins (A–Y horizontally, 1–27 vertically). It indexes over 1,300 individual chō (traditional neighborhood blocks and avenues), allowing a user to locate minuscule lanes within complex urban centers like Akasaka, Aoyama, and Ushigome.
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• The Tsukiji Foreign Settlement Inset (Tsukiji Teijūchi): Positioned along the lower left-hand margin, this dedicated close-up plan details the highly strategic treaty-port enclave established near the mouth of the Sumida River. The plan delineates the exact grid array of numbered real estate plots, tracking the physical footprints of early Western concession houses, corporate shipping outposts, and pioneering missionary chapels. It provides a rare visual window into the tightly regulated, legal border zone where foreign nationals were legally restricted to reside and trade.

The inner urban core is highly detailed. Meticulous miniature line engravings denote newly laid railway corridors, tram lines, and major civic facilities. Prominent shaded zones isolate the heavily fortified moats of the IMPERIAL RESIDENCE (the former Edo Castle), alongside Westernized institutional landmarks including Tokio Daigaku (Tokyo Imperial University), the recently constructed Kabuki-za Theatre, the sprawling public grounds of Uyeno Park (Ueno), and critical modern medical campuses such as the Hongo and Juntendo Hospitals.

The map offers a brilliant cartographic snapshot of treaty-port diplomacy during a critical juncture of international alignment, explicitly detailing where global powers anchored their influence in the Meiji capital. These sites can be cross-referenced systematically using the “LEGATION AND CONSULATE” index on page 12 of the accompanying Appendix booklet, which maps to two distinct labeling styles across the main sheet:

• Explicit Imperial Compounds (Direct Text Labels): The massive, custom-built diplomatic compounds of the Western empires are engraved directly onto the face of the map inside the urban core. The GREAT BRITAIN Legation is located within the highly prominent fortress-like compound at Grid H, 17, while the GERMANY Legation sits just nearby at Grid I, 15. Moving south of the Imperial Palace moats and Hibiya Park, the expansive compound of the U.S. of AMERICA Legation dominates Grid Q, 15, and the RUSSIA Legation is fixed at Grid K, 14.

• The Short-Lived Kingdom of Hawaii Mission (Coordinate Block Link): A feature of exceptional historical interest is the indexing of the HAWAI Legation, pinned by the booklet directly to Grid K, 11. Because the independent Hawaiian Kingdom did not possess a massive, separate imperial embassy compound, its diplomatic affairs were run out of the private estate of Hawaii’s Minister to Japan, the prominent international businessman Robert Walker Irwin. On the physical map sheet, this mission is located within the fine-line residential blocks of the designated coordinate box K, 11, preserving a rare visual trace of Hawaiian sovereignty just years before the kingdom’s 1893 overthrow and subsequent American annexation.
This premium 1893 folding pocket chart stands as an exceptional cartographic crossover piece, reflecting a unique commercial alliance between Boston and Meiji-era Tokyo literary circles.
• The “H. M. & Co.” Imprint: While appearing to the casual Victorian globe-trotter as a local treaty-port imprint, the initials stand for Houghton, Mifflin & Co., the powerhouse American literary publishing house based in Boston and New York. During the late 19th century, Houghton Mifflin was heavily invested in promoting Japanese culture to the West—most famously acting as the exclusive publisher for the legendary writer Lafcadio Hearn. They financed and authorized this high-end English-language map to satisfy elite Western diplomats, naval officers, and wealthy travelers who found indigenous Japanese woodblock maps (chizu) completely unreadable.• The Compiler (Nishinomiya Matsunosuke): While backed by American capital, the authentic cartographic architecture was designed by Tokyo publisher Nishinomiya Matsunosuke. Nishinomiya was the elder brother of Takejiro Hasegawa, the legendary publisher famous for creating the iconic Chirimen-bon (woodblock-printed Japanese fairy tale books on crinkled crepe paper). Nishinomiya pioneered the prototype for this specialized English-layout grid in the early 1880s; Houghton Mifflin purchased the rights to his plates, extensively expanding the data fields and index references for this ultimate 1893 release.

• The Engraver (G. Nakamura): The breathtaking crispness of the micro-typography and line-work was executed by the master Japanese engraver G. Nakamura. Nakamura belonged to the pioneering first generation of Meiji graphic artists who mastered Western-style fine-line intaglio lithography. Every English letter, numeric coordinate, and river trajectory was meticulously hand-etched onto the printing surface by Nakamura, creating an absolute masterpiece of late 19th-century miniature printmaking.

The Note on Rarity

Original 1893 impressions of the Houghton Mifflin / Nishinomiya New Map of Tokio are highly scarce, with very few complete examples surviving with both the intact linen panels and the fragile Appendix index booklet preserved:

• The Harvard University Map Collection (Pusey Library, Cambridge): Holds a pristine complete copy dissected into 32 sections and backed on linen, serving as a core institutional reference for Meiji-era urban development (Classification: MAP-LC G7964.T7 1893 .N5).

• The British Library (London): Maintains an official copy within their historical East Asian cartography files, frequently consulted for studies tracking treaty-port footprints and early English toponymy in Japan.

• The National Diet Library (Tokyo): Holds related early editions of Nishinomiya’s English-language Tokyo grids, documenting the evolution of indigenous Meiji lithographic printing techniques.