Kramer, Scott (Author)
Kramer, Hanae Kurihara (Author)
Imago Mundi: A Review of Early Cartography
Volume: 72
Issue: 1
Pages: 52-60
The Bonin Islands were first surveyed in 1675 by a Japanese expedition led by Shimaya Ichizaemon, a respected captain, skilled shipwright and future author of the navigational aid Funanori pirōto (Seaman’s Pilot). European cartographers had placed the Bonins on their Pacific charts as early as the sixteenth century, but inconsistently so since their understanding of the archipelago was based solely on brief sightings.1 The Japanese expedition succeeded in situating the Bonins on their maps with correct latitudes and east–west distances, the latter provided instead of longitudes. Shimaya’s men accurately recorded the archipelago’s size, composition and key features. They even studied the archipelago’s wildlife and mineral resources. Curiosity launched the 1675 expedition, after a story about a castaway seized the imagination of Tokugawa officials. A few years earlier, in 1670, a ship laden with oranges was pushed by a storm into unknown waters far off the Japanese coast. Nineteen weeks later, six of the merchant-sailors returned home with an account of islands smothered in unknown trees and inhabited by strange animals.2 They brought back objects that corroborated some of their claims; otherwise, they probably would not have been believed. The archipelago of more than 30 small islands, remotely situated about 1,000 kilometres south of Edo (present-day Tokyo), had hitherto been unknown to the Japanese people (Fig. 1). After the 1675 expedition, Japanese referred to the islands as Munintō (Uninhabited Islands) and Tatsumi Munintō (Southeast Uninhabited Islands). In the West they are known today as the Bonin, or Ogasawara, Islands. The 1675 expedition is a significant event in the history of Japanese exploration—albeit one of the most obscure—and a praiseworthy maritime accomplishment. Shimaya returned with exotic plants and animals that impressed upon people the vast differences between the Bonin Islands and Japan. At least two of the endemic bird species collected by the expedition are now extinct. Surveyors hacked their way through forests and sailed around the principal islands in a skiff to take various measurements. Shimaya knew the lie of the land and the spatial relationship of the islands. His men located the archipelago’s best anchorages. All this information, among other things, ensured that Japanese cartographers could produce reliable maps of the Bonin Islands. Shimaya submitted a detailed report to his superiors in Edo and, it is believed, two maps. He took possession of the Bonins for Japan with a ceremony that involved enshrining the Sansha takusen deities (trinity of oracles) on two islands but, for long-forgotten reasons, the authorities failed to maintain contact with the Bonins.3 The Tokugawa shogunate did not follow up with a second expedition until almost two centuries later in 1862.4 Japan possessed an accurate understanding of the Bonins for only a brief period. The expedition inspired fanciful stories that in a matter of decades overshadowed the accomplishments of Shimaya and his men. These tales ultimately became accepted as historical fact, a development that has greatly complicated the study of Bonin cartography. The most problematic is the legend of Ogasawara Sadayori, which holds that a samurai-explorer took possession of the Bonins in 1593. This legend was the creation of a fraudster who was attempting to turn the archipelago into his own fiefdom using government money.5 His schemings failed to turn a profit, but his lies continued to prosper. Today, the archipelago officially bears the name of his imaginary samurai-explorer: in Japan, people call it Ogasawara Guntō (Ogasawara Islands).
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