It is generally well known that a copy of the Nihonsouzu (general map of Japan) made during the Genroku Era by the Shogunate is currently being kept in Meiji University’s Ashida Library. Additionally, 10 sets of kirizu (copies of sections) of the Genroku Nihonsouzu are known to currently exist. These are actually copies of smaller sections of the map, however this fact is not commonly known. These sets of kiriutsushizu are kept in various places such as Shizuoka Prefecture’s Kuno Library, Tokyo Metropolitan Library’s Kondo Memorial Maritime Affairs Library, the Oosa Library of Nagoya, the Nanki Library at the University of Tokyo, the Akioka Collection at the National Museum of Japanese History, and in the Sanada Houmotukan of Nagano City.

When these ten sets of kiriutsushizu are compared, they resemble each other in terms of the drawings, the figures, the reduced scale, the land routes, the sea routes and nautical distances. However, there are certain differences, such as the number of sheets used, and the descriptions of the places. It appears that no set is identical to the original map.

Mr. Takejiro Akioka once remarked that the Nihonsouzu housed in the Ashida Library was not a complete copy of the original Nihonsouzu which the Shogunate made, but instead was simply a copy of a copy that only featured some selected and essential parts of the actual map. However, this notion of Mr. Akioka’s was never discussed and the Genroku Nihonzu kept at the Ashida Library has always been introduced as an exact copy of the original Genroku Nihonsouzu compiled by the Tokugawa Shogunate.

Consequently, I sought to clarify whether the Nihonsouzu at the Ashida Library is an exact and complete copy of the original map of Japan that the Shogunate had made or a simple copy, as Mr. Akioka had contended. With that in mind, I compared each of the ten sets of kiriutsushizu with the Nihonsouzu housed in the Ashida Library.

As a result of the study, it was determined that the Ashida Library’s Nihonsouzu was an exact copy of the map of Japan made by the Shogunate and was not the simplified map which Mr. Akioka had claimed it to be. And after examining their contents, I was able to divide the ten sets of kiriutsushizu into two groups: A and B. Group A’s maps were exact copies of the Ashida Library’s map rendered by the Shogunate. Group B’s maps featured additional geographical depictions of mountains, rivers, and a temple and a shrine and the place names, and yet these maps had been deemed to be exact copies of the Shogunate’s original rendering.

Maps in Group A can be found in the Kuno Library, the Kondo Memorial Maritime Affairs Library, and the Oosa Library of Nagoya. Maps in Group B can be found in the Akioka Collection at the National Museum of Japanese History, the University of Tokyo’s Nanki Library, and the Sanada Houmotukan of Nagano City.