1848 Tojo Kindai – IZU – OGASAWARA ISLANDS – WOODCUT Map – Banned by Shogun

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Nanpo Islands – Ogasawara
Anijima, Chichijima, and Hahajima
Proposed for Agragarian Settlement
Woodcut Hand Coloured Map
By Tojo Kindai
1848
Banned by Shogunate
During Tempo Reform

Japan’s First Overseas Colony
Possessions in the Pacific
14 Years Before Annexation



伊豆七島全圖 附無人島八十嶼圖相武房總海岸圖
[The Complete Map of the Seven Islands of Izu with a Map of the Eighty Uninhabited Islands.]Tojo Kindai, Abe Rekisai, et al.Japan, [1848]. Large woodcut watercoloured map to illustrate the remote and mostly uninhabited Nanpo and Ogasawara archipelagos, lying some 1000 kilometers south of Tokyo, of the important and banned map produce jointly by scholar and official Tojo Kindai and Abe Rekisai, from a limited run of 500 maps printed in 1848, for private distribution, not for sale to the public owing to the Tempo reform which oppressed any interest in subject matters concerning Western interests (Hawaiians and westerners were inhabiting the island). Kindai was imprisoned and subsequently exiled from Edo for the publication of the map; Rekisai was a promoter of Japanese settlement of the Bonin islands and it appears that he may have been spared from persecution. Folded and mounted to two striped cardstock boards at two ends for neat storage, also giving it the appearance of a typical Japanese book for concealing the content. Title, legend, placenames, and detailed descriptions, are all in Japanese. Map measures approximately 105 x 76 cm. Some age-toning, title label to boards worn, reinforced to one fold, otherwise in very good condition, beautifully preserved, with lovely colour accents, extensive detail, and retaining a strong impression. A rare surviving woodcut map that was banned by the shogunate.Tojo Kindai (1795-1878) was a Confucian scholar, calligrapher and cartographer active in Edo, where he was born, during the mid-nineteenth century. He studied under Ota Kinjo and Kameda Pengsai, and later served the Fukushima Daimyo. His aim with the production of this map was to illustrate the strategic importance of the Bonin islands, but by doing so, revealed secret information, essentially information about Western civilians and their successful agragarian activites on the islands. Knowledge of western ways was strictly prohibited. He was gaoled for seven months, then exiled from Edo for eight years after producing the map, which centered on the coveted southern islands that would become Japan’s first overseas colony only fourteen years later (still during his lifetime). Ironically, criminals in Edo were often confined on Hachijojima island (in which he clearly took interest) or Miyakejima of the nearby Izu island group, especially political prisoners such as Kindai would have been labeled.[Hachijojima was used as an exile island during the Edo Period, firstly for banished political figures and then for general citizens convicted of various crimes. Still visible today on the west side of the island, are the distinctive “tamaishigaki” round-stone walls built using smooth, round stones that convicts were forced to carry from the beach several kilometers away. They received one onigiri (rice ball) per stone. Convicts were not told the length of their sentences and there were many foiled escape attempts, a crime punishable by death. Hachijojima’s days as a prison island ended after a general amnesty in 1868 during the Meiji Restoration, at which point most islanders decided to move to the mainland. However, the policy of banishment was not officially abolished until 1881.]Abe Rekisai (1805-1870), also known as Abe Yoshito, Abe Tomonoshin, and Hashukuen, born in the Toshima District of Edo, was a Japanese botanist, herbalist and author who published many works, with subjects on horticulture, botany, and even social conflict resolution. In 1856 he published geographic descriptions of Hokkaido where Abe Sho¯nin, his ancestor, twice visited to collect medicinal plants, commissioned by the Shogunate government (Bakufu).
A most fascinating map produced twenty years before Japan’s Tokugawa (Edo) shogunate had claimed the Nanpo and Ogasawara archipelagos lying some 1000 kilometers south of Tokyo in 1862, the islands are named, and communication routes between them are clearly indicated. Mountain ranges are also shown, both on and around the islands.The map extends in the north from the heavily forested Izu Peninsula, along Sagami Bay and Tokyo Bay and including the Boso Peninsula, showing access and close proximity to Izu Oshia, Toshima, Niijima, Shikine-jima, Miyake, Kozu-shima, Mikarujima, and the smaller islands in the vicinity. Five sea connections to Shimoda, and some between the islands themselves are drawn. It continues southward to show the volcanic islands of Hachijo-jima and Aogashimas, highlighting in an inset the desirable southern Pacific Ogasawara chain, including Ototojima, Anijima, Chichi, Minamijima, Hahajima, Anejima, Meijima and Imotojima.It was the height of the Tempo reform of 1841-1843 when Kindai first published the map, a highly risky endeavour with the economic and political reform that dealt a sweeping blow to the publishing industry. [The so-called reform intended to address problems in local politics, military, economic, agricultural, financial and religious systems, but they also addressed more broadly the “domestic uneasiness.” The perceived need for change led to the arrest of many prominent political figures and writers.]Upon the woodcut productions in 1843, a period in which only a scant few would have been made for trusted colleagues due to heavy publication censorship, Kindai’s map was banned and diligent scholars began their efforts to secretly transcribe and preserve the invaluable information. The present manuscript map collaborates this gallant and historic pursuit of preserving and carrying forward knowledge and the freedom of learning.Resolute and unflappable, Kindai continued to seek out more information on the subject, and again printed a small number of his map, slightly revised, in 1848. It too, was banned by the shogunate, who undoubtedly gathered and destroyed all copies they could find, a common practice of the day, which yet again inspired and necessitated scholars to become clandestine transcribers of important works.For his map, now produced twice and deemed “an act of political agitation,” Kindai found himself in violation of strict prohibitions against the publication of coastal maps, a rule motivated by security concerns of the isolationists. As such, after printing 500 woodcut copies of the slightly revised version in 1848, again for private distribution, he was discovered, tried in court, sent to a gaol for seven months, and began a criminal sentence that banished him from Edo for eighteen years (Kokushi daijiten.)The present map is an exceedingly scarce limited woodcut print which survived the shogunate’s “ban and destroy” campaign while Kindai sat in the gaol.






An early hand-coloured manuscript map of Japan’s first overseas colony – fourteen years before annexation!The purpose of this map was to showcase the southernmost islands in the greater Nanpo archipelago, situated 1,000 kilometers south – the Ogasawara Islands, also known as the Bonin islands, at the time inhabited by only a handful of settlers from abroad, although a certain Japanese ancestry falsely laid claim to them and was supported by the shogunate. This portion of the map extends from the tiny Mago-shima island to small islands of Meijima and Imotojima, highlighting the important islands of Chichijima, Anijima, and Hahajima in between.Having arrived in 1830, the inhabitants consisted of only 26 individuals (20 Hawaiians, 4 Americans, and 2 Europeans) at the time of producing the present map. Forming the first permanent colony, these were Nathaniel Savory of Bradford in Massachusetts, Alden B. Chapin and Nathaniel Savory of Boston, Richard Millichamp of Devon in England, Matteo Mazzaro of Ragusa/Dubrovnik in the Austrian Empire (now in Croatia), Carl Johnsen of Copenhagen, as well as seven unnamed men and 13 women from the Kingdom of Hawaii.They found the climate suitable for farming and the raising of livestock. Rum was made from cane sugar, and bordellos were opened, sometimes staffed by women kidnapped from other island chains. Whalers and other ships that could not find another friendly port in Japan often visited the Bonins for provision and recreation. Matteo Mazzaro was named Governor of the islanders, and upon his death he was succeeded by Nathaniel Savory.A scant few whalers had reached the islands as early as 1824, but it was in 1827 that Captain F. W. Beechey of HMS Blossom had reached the islands and claimed them as a British possession. A copper plate was removed from the hull of his ship Blossom and left on a beach as a marker of the claim:
“HBM Ship Blossom Capt F. W. Beechey took possession of this Group of Islands in the Name of and on the behalf of His Britannic Majesty George the IV on the 14th June 1827.”He also named the island of Chichijima “Peel” after then British Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel. Beechey was also surprised to find two men living on the islands. They remained on the islands after the William left the year before, in 1826. The men were Wittrein and Petersen.In the 1820s, the Japanese also developed increasing interest in the southern islands, despite the shogunate’s seclusion policies. Private publications document the growth of public interest. In his 1823 treatise titled Secret Plan for Unification, Sato Nobuhiro presented probably the most audacious and aggressive scenario for Japan’s expansion via Ogasawara and the Mariana Islands. He suggested a small initial settlement of commoners, gradually increased with strong soldiers from Shikoku to fortify the possession.In the late 1830s, rumors circulated that shogunal magistrate Hagura Kando had been ordered to sail to Ogasawara after a routine visit to the Izu Islands. This rumor appealed particularly to those intellectuals who had dedicated much time to the study of Western learning, such as the famous painter Watanabe Kazan, who in 1837 formally applied to join the expedition. His request was not only denied, he was prosecuted as part of the 1839 purge of Western studies (bansha no goku) and forced to renounce his interest in Ogasawara.This event did not frighten, nor deter private scholar Tojo Kindai (also seen as Tojo Shinko, or Tojo Kinki), who, during the despotic Tempo reform, published in 1843 a large map of the Izu archipelago that connected the Ogasawara Islands to Japan, both graphically and rhetorically. Originally published as a woodblock print, both the first and revised editions of his map were banned by the shogunate. (The present map is a manuscript copy of his original, surely drawn secretly by a scholar who was determined to preserve the invaluable information).Referring to the reports of castaways, some of whom had returned to Japan after spending several years on the islands, Kindai wrote:
“Even though the soil was saline and barren like salt, there was a way to break up and reclaim some rich earth. Thus, new land could be cleared by working in [soil] dredged from mountains and creeks. If this is done properly, then [we] can allot housing to commoners, and, following this, the settlement will gradually expand its population. In the tenth year after colonization, the island will produce enough to pay rice and tax. Incorporating the native population [dochaku], this will succeed!” [Izu shichito zenzu 1843]After a shipwrecked Japanese crew had spent a winter in the island settlement before their return to Japan in 1840, it was probably known in Japan that the islands had become home to a community of whalers and settlers. Kindai’s comment suggests the knowledge of agrarian activities having been under way. It was prudent of him to not mention the westerners or their ways. However, he promoted the same to be done by Japanese in an effort to colonize the islands with a Japanese agrarian society dependent on the motherland.The text on Kindai’s map begins with an account of the earliest Japanese contacts with the islands. [Japanese discovery of the islands occurred in Kanbun 10 (1670) and was followed by a shogunate expedition in Enpo 3 (1675). The islands were then referred to as Bunin jima (Buninjima), literally “the uninhabited islands”. Shimaya Ichizaemon, the explorer at the order of the shogunate, inventoried several species of trees and birds, but after his expedition, the shogunate abandoned any plans to develop the remote islands.]This is followed by a geographical description of the seven Izu islands, which were inhabited by Japanese. Details include land area, population, local produce and major products, as well as identifying samurai barracks, castle towns, and Shinto shrines. These establishments, as well as cities, villages, and station towns, are easily identifiable with the help of the legend. Sea routes to the main island’s coast and principle port cities are well illustrated.The large text block in the center of the map is a detailed description of Ogasawara, and most certainly the matter of highest interest for scholars of the day. The equally prominent and fascinating inset depicts the islands and their general topography, as well as indicating their distance from Hachjojima, the southernmost main Izu island.
Izu Oshia, Toshima, Niijima, Shikine-jima, Miyake, Kozu-shima, Mikarujima, Hachijo, Hachijo-kojima, and the volcanic AogashimaClose-up of Hachijo, Hachijo-kojima, and the volcanic Aogashima
The three islands of particular interest on the present map are Anijima, Chichijima, and Hahajima.Anijima is an uninhabited island located directly north of Chichijima. Anijima and Chichijima were considered as possible airport sites beginning in the late twentieth century and for several decades, but owing to the numerous valuable, rare, or endangered plant species forming a unique ecosystem in the vicinity of the proposed sites, issues of nature conservation were raised and the projects were denied. An area on the southern region of the island is delineated on the present map, suggesting that already a century ago there were considerations for some type of development.Chichijima, which means “Father Island”, formerly known as Peel Island, is the largest island in the Ogasawara archipelago, spanning approximately 23 square kilometers. The first settlement on the island was established in May 1830 by 36-year-old Massachusetts native Nathaniel Savory along with four other whites and 20 Hawaiian men and women from Oahu. Commodore Perry’s flagship Susquehanna anchored for 3 days in Chichijima’s harbor on 15 June 1853, on the way to his historic visit to Tokyo Bay to open up the country to western trade. Perry also laid claim to the island for the United States for a coaling station for steamships, appointing Nathaniel Savory as an official agent of the US Navy and formed a governing council with Savory as the leader. On behalf of the US government, Perry “purchased” 50 acres from Savory. On January 17, 1862, a Tokugawa Shogunate ship entered a harbor at Chichijima and officially proclaimed Japanese sovereignty over the Ogasawara Islands. Japanese immigrants were introduced from Hachijojima under the direction of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Forty members of the Savory colony were allowed to stay on the island. Following the Meiji restoration in 1868, a group of 37 Japanese colonists arrived on the island under the sponsorship of the Japanese Home Ministry in March 1876. The island was officially incorporated into Tokyo Metropolis on 28 October 1880. Prehistoric tools were discovered at the end of the 20th century on Chichi-jima. Today, approximately 2,000 people live on this island.Hahajima was originally called Coffin Island or Hillsborough Island and settled by Europeans before becoming part of Japan. Its name means “Mother Island” and it is the second-largest island of the Ogasawara Islands, at approximately 21 square kilometers. [In 1904 the population was 1,546 which grew to 1,905 people in 1940. In World War II, the Japanese government removed the locals and fortified the island as it was the target of several attacks by US forces. Today, Hahajima has a population of only 450, the economy based on commercial fishing as well as a state-run rum distillery. The remains of the fortification are now one of the tourist attractions of the island. There is one road from the now-abandoned village of Kitamura, which before the war had a population of about 600 people, at the north end of the island, going to the village of Okimura (formerly known as Newport) at the southern end of the island, where the harbor is located. The island can be reached by ferry in about two hours from Chichijima.]The Ogasawara Islands were registered as a World Natural Heritage in 2011.
Ogasawara islands:
Ototojima, Anijima, Chichi, Minamijima, Hahajima, Anejima, Meijima and Imotojima









The Ogasawara (Bonin) islands are composed of the three island groups, listed here from north to south, Mukojima Islands, Chichijima Islands, and Hahajima Islands. They are part of the Nanpo archipelago. Until 1830, the islands were uninhabited and thus called Muninjima (meaning “uninhabited island”). This Japanese name was transliterated or transformed into the more widely known English name – the Bonin Islands.The Nanpo Islands are all administered by Tokyo Metropolis. The Hydrographic and Oceanographic Department of the Japan Coast Guard defines the Nanpo Shoto as including the following archipelagos: Izu Islands, Ogasawara Islands, Volcano Islands, North Iwo Islands, South Iwo Islands, Okinotorishima and Minamitorishima.The first recorded visit by Europeans to the islands happened on 2 October 1543, when the Spanish explorer Bernardo de la Torre on the San Juan sighted Haha-jima, which he charted as Forfana. At that time, the islands were uninhabited.Japanese discovery of the islands occurred in Kanbun 10 (1670) and was followed by a shogunate expedition in Enpo 3 (1675). The islands were then referred to as Bunin jima, literally “the uninhabited islands”. Shimaya Ichizaemon, the explorer at the order of the shogunate, inventoried several species of trees and birds, but after his expedition, the shogunate abandoned any plans to develop the remote islands.In 1727, Ogasawara Sadato, a ronin, claimed that the islands were discovered by his ancestor Ogasawara Sadayori in 1593, (Tensho 20), and the territory was granted as a fief by Toyotomi Hideyoshi. However, investigation of the claim found that it was a fraud and the very existence of Sadayori was doubtful. As a punishment Sadato was exiled by the shogunate (1735).In 1827 Captain F. W. Beechey of HMS Blossom reached the island chain and claimed them as a British possession. A copper plate was removed from Blossom’s hull and left on a beach as a marker of the claim. Beechey was surprised to find two men living on the islands.In 1830, with the help of British Consul to the Sandwich Islands (Hawaii) Richard Charlton, the first permanent colony was established there. Further settlers arrived in 1846. Commodore Matthew C. Perry of the United States Navy visited the islands in 1853 and bought property at Port Lloyd from Savory for $50. The US “Colony of Peel Island” (Chichijima) was created and Savory was appointed governor.

In 1861, the Tokugawa shogunate would inform all foreign embassies of its claim over the islands, and later in that same year, an expedition entitled “Examination of the islands in Izu Province and cultivation of the island Ogasawara” set sail for the archipelago. (Tanaka 1983, 244).On 18 January 1862 (Bunkyu 1), Captain Ono Tomogoro and the Japanese steamboat Kanrin-maru weighed down by cannons, with a crew of about 80 (cartographers, physicians and prominent bureaucrats), entered the harbor of Port Lloyd in the Ogasawara Islands, where only 32 years earlier, a group of whalers had settled permanently. Declaring that the Ogasawara islands had long been a part of Japan, and that the expedition was an act of “reclaiming” the islands in the name of their earlier owners, the descendants of Ogasawara Sadayuki who in 1728 fraudulently claimed it as his hereditary domain, worked like a charm. The islands became part of the shogun-owned lands of eastern Japan, and were now officially named Ogasawara, referring to the legendary Japanese discoverer from the late 16th century.After the magistrate had staked his claim in front of the islanders, the Japanese expedition started to map and explore the island. The captain went out to draw the coastlines from the sea, while others proceeded inland to climb the mountains. They invented new Japanese toponyms to label the land and they occupied space culturally through land reclamation, carefully documented in landscape paintings. Particular attention was paid to underwater topography in order to evaluate the navigability of bays and straits.Attitudes concerning foreigners and new technologies began to change, becoming more open, and ultimately forming tangible imperial ambitions. The shogunate’s resolute annexation of the archipelago reflects the emergence of a new economic approach to modernizing colonialism, beginning with the investigating economic opportunities in the Pacific sphere.Contact with the whalers and earlier inhabitants introduced new technologies and species into Japan, for example. Officials were particularly intrigued by formerly unknown plant and animal species found on the islands.Japanese settlements were established; maritime resources were explored for economy; and geographical notions were reshaped in order to make the overseas territory a part of the Izu archipelago some 700 kilometers farther north. Ethnicity and coastlines were no longer the unique criteria that demarcated Japan.It was the perfect setting. While maintaining an ostensible conformity with the Confucian ideal of agrarian societies, the Tokugawa shogunate also encouraged whaling as a means of turning the sea into a space of production.Ogasawara was put under the authority of Egawa Tarozaemon, the shogunal representative in Shimoda. Instead of culturally integrating the previous population, the Japanese created two distinct spaces of settlement. Most Japanese settlers resided near the administrative offices in Ogiura and in the newly opened villages in the south of Chichijima, avoiding conflicts over agrarian space with most “foreign” inhabitants of Omura and Okumura villages across the bay. Taxes were not collected from foreigners right away, but settler colonialism promised an expansion of taxable lands.This colonization, however, did not last for long. In summer 1863, under foreign pressure, the shogunate ordered the evacuation of the islands.
In 1875 the Japanese Meiji government reclaimed the islands. The Japanese names of each island were resolved and 38 settlers from Hachijojima were sent the following year. In 1876 the islands were put under the direct control of the Home Ministry and the islanders of European and US ancestry were granted Japanese nationality in 1882.During World War II, most inhabitants were forcibly evacuated to the mainland. There was a Japanese military base on Chichijima run by a Major Sueo Matoba, who was known for engaging in cannibalism and other acts on prisoners of war. He was hanged for his crimes after the war. Following World War II, the islands were controlled by the United States Navy, which expelled all residents except those descended from the original settlers and/or related to them by marriage, while allowing the return of pre-war inhabitants of White American or European, Micronesian or Polynesian ancestry.The islands were returned to Japanese control in 1968.

Close-up cropped views of the Izu Peninsula, Sagami Bay, Tokyo Bay, Boso Peninsula,etc Yokosuka:

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