ENGLISH

A Malleable Map: Geographies of Restoration in Central Japan, 1600-1912

By Karen Wigen

Book information

Publisher
University of California Press
Year
2010
ISBN
9780520945807
DOI
10.1525/9780520945807
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
8 MB (7924380 bytes)
Series
Asia: Local Studies / Global Themes; 17
Pages
340\353
Library
degruyter.com
Time added
2023-08-21 13:03:13

Description

Kären Wigen probes regional cartography, choerography, and statecraft to redefine restoration (ishin) in modern Japanese history. As developed here, that term designates not the quick coup d’état of 1868 but a three-centuries-long project of rehabilitating an ancient map for modern purposes. Drawing on a wide range of geographical documents from Shinano (present-day Nagano Prefecture), Wigen argues that both the founder of the Tokugawa Shogunate (1600–1868) and the reformers of the Meiji era (1868–1912) recruited the classical map to serve the cause of administrative reform. Nor were they alone; provincial men of letters played an equally critical role in bringing imperial geography back to life in the countryside. To substantiate these claims, Wigen traces the continuing career of the classical court’s most important unit of governance—the province—in central Honshu.

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