This hand colored woodblock print is a map of Yamashiro no kuni (Yamashiro Provence) dating from 1778, and I’m surprised its lasted this long. I’m not much of a cartographer so I can’t tell you about the quality of this map along those terms, except that it is in amazing condition. You have to click on the image and go to the link because there is an amazing zoomable image in high resolution to check out. What I can tell you is what was going on in Japan at the time and that’s what makes this piece so worthwhile (beyond the fact that it is 229 years old). First a little background (without turning this into a history paper).

Yamashiro had been the home of the seat of the Imperial Court of Japan since 794. Kammu was the Emperor at this time and he moved the capitol first from Nara in 784 to Nagaoka-kyou, then to Heian-kyou (now Kyoto) in 794, thus beginning the Heian period of Japan. Religion played a huge part in politics at this time, especially Buddhism (downplaying Shinto) since the Rulers of the time were trying hard to give themselves clout with the Chinese emissaries (since they were borrowing so much from them, like kanji, technology and creational myths) so this was when all the important religious figures started to gravitate towards the area and temples started to be built. I could list all the temples that you might find depicted on this map but, you can find that all online. You might also find the areas of Gion and Pontocho on the map that were used as inspiration for the book and movie Memoirs of a Geisha.

In 1778 the Emperor was Go-Momozomo (who died the next year at the ripe old age of 22), the Shogun was Tokugawa Ieharu (the tenth Tokugawa Shogun) and the area had just suffered a massive flood. Also at this time a Russian trader named Pavel Lebedev-Lastochkin (the first non-Dutch to contact the Japanese for trade) had landed in Ezo, what is now known as Hokkaido, and was turned away (Japan was under the policy called Sakoku, no one could leave or enter the country upon penalty of death), being told to try again in Nagasaki (one of the four places that was permitted outside contact and trade, as well as being quite far away from Russia) which helped to discourage him.

At any rate, this map was created during an interesting time in Japanese history and would be well worth inclusion in one’s collection, albeit the asking price of $4,999.99 might be a little prohibitive for most collectors. At least it’s worthwhile to look at the high-def images. Check it out.