A map redrawing is an untruthful description of a part of a map. The “wartime map redrawing” has a military background. This report focuses on wartime revisions of privately published maps, which are rarely discussed.
The privately published map that this report focuses on is the third revised （final） edition of the “Kanazawa City Map” （scale: 1:12,000, size: 364×515 mm）, published in February 1944 by Ryokichi IKE of Ikezen Bookstore in Kanazawa. This map depicts fictitious roads and also includes fictitious town district names. It also contains fictitious symbols for temples and shrines and the name of a fictitious facility, “Shikishima Kaikan.”
However, it cannot be said that Ryokichi actively undertook that redrawing. His resentment over the wartime revisions can be seen in the fact that shortly after the end of the war. Ryokichi devoted his energy to publishing a new Kanazawa City Map, with the revisions removed, from another publisher to take over from the out-of-business Ikezen Bookstore.
Finally, looking back at the significance of his wartime revisions, judging from newspaper articles and other sources, it appears that they were not at all problematic for the general public at the time; rather, he may have left the joy of unraveling the mystery for us in future generations.
