A review on manor maps of medieval Japan

Abstract

In the medieval times of Japan, the maps of whole Japan on a small reduced scale were hardly made, but the maps of small areas on a large reduced scale were made in plenty; i.e., the maps which illustrated manors or villages were made with the land survey, the division of manor land, and the allocation of boundary.Hitherto medieval manor maps have been classified in view of the purpose of map-making; here, the author, however, tries to classify them into three groups in view of the manner of painting and the art drawing.They are as follows.(1) Maps-_??__??_, _??__??_, _??__??_. In these maps, only Jôri (_??__??_) siystem district were illustrated, and they are the maps which followed the way of ancient map-making; i.e., they are the maps on the grid pattern. In other words, they are the maps on the exact reduced scale; therefore, it could be said that they are quite valuable materials for the study of histoical geography.(2) Pictorial maps-_??__??__??__??_. In manor maps, the appearances of villages were illustrated pictorially, and the purposes of this map-making were evidences for allocation of manor, division of manor land, and allocation of boundary. As for the map-makers, it would be conjectured that they were not the successors of the ancient land surveyors but the painters under the patronage of the lords of manors or the manor officers.(3) Diagrams-_??__??__??_, _??__??_. In these diagrams, thematic map data such as the location or the special irrigation systems were illustrated. These diagrams were made when something significant dispute happened between villages, and they hecame evidences of settling the trouble. They were illustrated only with the black lines without any color painting. It would be conjectured that almost all of them were made by the farmers at the villages.Among three types manor maps above-mentioned, the author, in this paper, describes the circumstances and the problems in the studies of the pictorial maps of manor.There are two features in the expression of manor maps; i.e., first it was painted colorfully and second it was not a plan but bird's-eye view. There are various landacape clement in the contents illustrated in the manor maps; especially the abundant description of the natural and artificial view could be found.In the manor maps, however, there are a lot of defects-distortion and exaggeration-because of their pictorial composition. In the contrary, we could find in full detail the matters of boundary lines, irrigation system, and so on, which were the purpose of the map-making. In studying in manor maps, manor maps have been used only for the restoration of Jôri system or of the view of the villages attained.These studies have obtained a lot of good results; it cannot but be said, however, that studies in view of the matters of the purpose in the mapmaking are quite few. The remarkable reason why the studies are so few is the lack of the historical materials. Accordingly, I am of the opinion that by field investigations of the manor pictures, the approach to the restoration or the change of political regions such as the formation of boundary in villages is essential.