Mapping Japan in Chosŏn Korea: Images in the Government Report Haedong chegukki

Abstract

The Chosŏn Korea government compiled a handbook on relations with Japanese and Ryukyuan contacts in the early 1470s. This report, titled Haedong chegukki and extant today as a printing from 1512, included several maps of Japan prepared by the Chosŏn government. Historians of cartography and foreign relations commonly refer to these images as Japanese Gyōki-style maps of Japan based upon the design of the Japanese islands and provinces. However, Korean mapmakers compiled these maps to be read and for state use, thus placing Japan as a foreign country and inscribing into the images discourses of interaction that would be legible to government officials.