Plan de Jedo

Early copper-engraved plan of Toyko (formerly Jedo, or Iedo) based directly on Engelbert Kaempfer's seminal map of the city published in 1727, which at the time was the most detailed European description of Japanese life and culture.



Kaempfer's work was not only important for its maps but also for the history of science and for the annals of natural history. He was a doctor, and his first priority was the cataloguing of Japanese herbs and plants. The maps were of equal importance as they were a primary source and although this plan of Tokyo may not have been the earliest printed map of the city, it was certainly the most accurate at the time and used as a source by other mapmakers, such as Bellin, for over a century.


Coloured. [SEAS5168]