2018 Volume 56 Issue 1 Pages 9-23
Inô-zu were the first accurate scientific survey maps of the entire coastline of Japanese archipelago officially presented to the shogun in 1821.
It is generally said that the shogun shelved them in his library, and it was until the closing days of the Edo period nearly a half century later, that Inô-zu began to be utilized and appreciated. The donation of the small scale series of Inô-zu to the British fleet in 1861, and the official publication of them in 1867 were the scarce case known as its utilization under the Tokugawa Shogunate.
However there were some cases other than the examples above showing the vestiges of the utilization of Inô-zu, such as the case of Sado Kuniezu （Provincial map of Sado） in the years of 1835-1836, the investigation of the coast of Edo bay for its security by officers of foreign affairs of the shogunal government in 1849, the coastal survey of Ise Bay in 1861 by the officers of the Navy, and some printed maps published in the same period. These examples show that the utilization of Inô-zu was not such strictly restricted as it has been long thought of. It seems that the each case properly take advantage of the feature of Inô-zu of accurately surveyed coastal maps.
After Meiji Restoration Inô-zu served as bases and important data sources to meet the urgent needs of accurate scientific maps and charts and of the source of compilation of historiography and topography of Japan.
According to several historical documents at that time, we know the Map of Japan（1:432,000 compiled by the Dajokan-Seiin（Grand Council of Japan）presented to the International Exhibition held at Vienna in 1873 was the first and the most prominent accomplishment of the modern style map based on Inô-zu. Unfortunately we can no longer trace its appearance because the map seems to have been lost now.
Subsequently the utilization of the Inô-zu as the basic information has followed soon at official agencies such as the Bureau of Historiography, the Geographical Bureau, Ministry of Education, then prevailed widely in private enterprises. Inô-zu was also used as the base map for investigations of geology, soil, mines and so on.
We can draw the conclusion from this review mentioned above that the appreciation of the basic property of Inô-zu : accurate coastal survey with graticule has been common understanding of those who utilized Inô-zu to develop their maps.
