Description

Alexander Keith JOHNSTON (1804–1871) – 安信氏家 (Yasunobu UJIIE), Translator.

万国地図
[Universal Map / Maps of the World]

Tokyo: 杉本七百丸 : 小林喜右衛門 : 榊原友吉 Meji 26 [1893].

From the beginning of the Meiji Era (1868 – 1912) Japan embarked upon the most extreme and radical socio-economic transformation of any society in world history, before or since. In only a short matter of years, Japan transformed itself from an isolationist, largely agrarian, traditionist realm, into an outward-looking, hyper-modern industrial power. Japan suddenly developed an unquenchable thirst for the latest Western scientific knowledge, techniques and technology, to enact necessary reforms to support the country’s dramatic urbanization and its growing military-industrial complex.

The Japanese government quickly reformed its ministries and operational systems to conform to administering a modern society. The country also moved at breakneck speed to create institutions to advance scientific discoveries and to introduce the most advanced Western techniques and technologies, accomplishing things in only few years what most societies took generations to build. They sent the brightest and most open-minded young Japanese intellectuals to Britain, Germany, and France to gain the best knowledge, and to recruit elite Western advisors to move to Japan. A major breakthrough included the foundation of the University of Tokyo, in 1877, which soon became a world-class centre of excellence. This was followed, in 1879, by the establishment of the Tokyo Geographical Society, modeled after the Royal Geographical Society, in London.

The present atlas was created in 1893 as a result of the governmental reforms for school and education. The 7 double-page maps are based on The National Atlas of Historical, Commercial and Political Geography by one of the leading British cartographers Alexander Keith Johnston (1804–1871). They showcase the following areas: 1 – Map of the World wtith lengths of longest rivers and heights of world’s highest mountains, 2 – Asia, 3 – Africa, 4 – Europe, 5 – North America, 6 – South America, 7 – Australia with Oceania.

According to the text on the back, this is an enlarged edition, which followed the first edition of two years earlier.

The imprint on the first page quotes, that the atlas was given as a present to pupils at the Nagano Prefecture Elementary School, probably being the Kaichi School in Matsumoto, Nagano Prefecture, opened in 1873, one of the first modern elementary schools in Japan, established during the Meiji Restoration.

We could trace two examples on Worldcat, housed at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies and National Diet Library, both in Japan.

References: OCLC 1021038055.