Аннотация:Abstract The first known Japanese visual representation of the archipelago is
attributed to Gyōki Bosatsu (668–749). Today at least eighteen manuscript
Gyōki-type 行基maps are preserved, in different formats, and they date from the
beginning of fourteenth century through the second half of the eighteenth century. The
prototype of Gyōki maps can be clearly seen in the first representation of the Japanese
islands on the oldest of surviving Korean maps—Kangnido (1402, the earliest extant
copy 1472) and on the earliest printed map of Japan (1471, Sin Sukchu). The
depiction of Japan as a little oval island with the name Nihon is prevalent in Chinese
maps beginning with the earliest extant maps of the Chinese Empire dating from the
Song dynasty (960–1279) and till the Ming period (1368–1644). Beginning with the
1459 Fra Mauro map, the earliest European map with the name Japan and a representation
of the archipelago seems to draw influence from the East Asian cartography.
Maps made by Homem (1554, 1558), Velho (1561), Dourado (1568) and even the
first separate map of Japan by Teixeira (1595) were to a great extent based on
Gyōki-type maps. From the seventeenth century onwards Japanese cartographers used
in their mapping methods geographical data they adopted from European maps and
changed their restrained depiction style to a colourful description of nature, celebrated
sights etc. (Ryūsen’s maps, 1661–1720). Korean cartographers borrowed the Western
tradition of making atlases and produced a rather rare, unique tradition in the East
Asian cartography—atlases for everyday use.
1 Introduction