A Description and Analysis of the Japanese World Map Bankoku sozu in Its Version of 1671 and Some Thoughts on the Sources of the Original Bankoku sozu Introduction Elke Papelitzky (Universitat Salzburg) Japanese cartography starting from the late sixteenth century has been greatly influenced by Western cartography. With the arrival of the Europeans in the mid-sixteenth century, West- ern maps quickly found their way to Japan. Initially such maps decorated byobu }# Jl screens, also known as Nanban byobu l¥iffi!#Bll, later the development of Japanese cartography be- came closely tied to the activities of the Jesuits in China, where Matteo Ricci (chin. Li Madou, jap. Rimato ;fUI,\!jji£, 1552-1610) and others produced several world maps with Chinese place names. The most influential map belonging to this category, the Kunyu wan guo quantu was prepared in 1602 and came to Japan in 1605 at the latest. 1 There are also several works based on other maps drawn by Ricci, for example a map included in theFangyu shengliie 1JJ!I'4001& (1610), or a map in the encyclopaedia Sancai tuhui .=:::tll1lr (1607). All these maps had a great influence on contemporary Japanese cartography? One of the most importaqt works based on a Ricci-type map is the Bankoku sozu II, first printed in the year Shoho tori IE1:\f@, 1645. It is generally known as the earliest printed Japanese world map in Western style. There are several versions of this map, the most "original" copy now being the one in the Shimonoseki City Chofu Museum. This version consists of two sheets (woodblock print) later coloured by hand. One sheet shows a map in oval projection, the other carries images of forty ethnic groups (hence its common name ]inbutsuzu A!Jo/JIZ!). The sheet with the map depicts four different ships in each corner. Unno Kazutaka, "Cartography in Japan", in]. B. Harley and David Woodward ( eds.), The History of Cartography. Volume 2, Book 2. Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies (Chicago: The Univ. of Chicago Pr., 1994), p. 404. 2 For an introduction into Japanese cartography in English, ibid.; Hugh Cortazzi, Isles of Gold Antique Maps of japan (New York u.a.: Weatherhill, 1983); Nanba Matsutaro, Nobuo Muroga and Kazutaka Unno ( eds.), Old Maps in Japan (Osaka: Sogensha, 1973). journal of Asian History48.1 (2014)