Unique Perspectives on Kyoto: A Map Chat article by Richard Pegg (MacLean Collection)

The Norman B. Leventhal Map and Education Center at the Boston Public Library is pleased to present its first Map Chat article in which Richard Pegg, the curator of the MacLean Collection, examines graphic representations of urban Japan from the Tokugawa period.

Unique Perspectives on Kyoto

Richard Pegg

The MacLean Collection Map Library includes a group of maps of the city of Kyoto, a city which was the official Imperial capital and unofficial cultural capital of Japan from the eighth century until the early seventeenth century. During the early Tokugawa period (1603–1868) the Shogun established the administrative capital in Edo, which was later named Tokyo and became the official capital in 1868. Thus, over the course of the Tokugawa period, there were two capitals in Japan: the administrative in Edo and the Imperial and cultural in Kyoto.

In respect to Kyoto’s historical and cultural importance, the Shogun maintained a castle in Kyoto. The physical location of Kyoto was originally deemed ideal in the eighth century following a list of geomantic criteria. These criteria were based on a Chinese ideal used for the ancient Chinese city of Luoyang, China’s capital during the Eastern Han (25–220 CE) and Tang (618–907) dynasties. This ideal consisted of a ring of protective mountains and the generally north/south position of fertile plains between two rivers, as found in Kyoto.

Beginning in the sixteenth century, a unique type of quasi-cartographic depiction of Kyoto known as “Scenes in and around the Capital” (rackuchu rakugai zu) became popular in Japan. These maps were created on multi-panel painted and gilded screens (byobu), as in this example from the Metropolitan Museum of Art shown below…

About the Author: Richard Pegg is Director and Curator of the MacLean Collection in Illinois, and a member of the Leventhal Center’s Board of Review. In this guest post, he takes a close look at a set of maps of Kyoto that were recently added to our digital collections. This is the first in a regular series of Map Chats, in which researchers from partner collections will explore historic cartographic materials from all around the world.