Kakkoku Shoryō Bankoku Chimei Shōran

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Shibata, Shūzō.

Edo [Tōkyō] : Shunsōdō, [Kaei 6 (1853)].

A guidebook of place names from around the world, recorded as "the first dictionary of place names [published in Japan]".¹ The author, Shibata Shūzō (1820–1859), was the son of a dried fish seller who lived on Sado Island in his early years. He enjoyed drawing pictures and maps of his local surrounds from a young age, but originally studied Chinese and Dutch medicine before becoming a map-maker in Edo in the 1850s.² It is possible that Shūzō took the place names for Kakkoku Shoryō from a set of books published in 1845 on world geography by Mitsukuri Shōgo titled Konyo Zushiki, as it is recorded that Shūzō finished reading Shōgo's books just before he started his draft for Kakkoku Shoryō.³

There are many place names listed in the text under continent and country names like Asia, Russia, Europe, America, Africa, and Australia. Many cities, islands, and states of Australia are listed, as are several locations in New Zealand. The entries for Australia include South Australia, Western Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, Adelaide, Kangaroo Island, Van Diemen's Land, Fremantle, and so on. Another fascinating entry for "Antarctica, a newly discovered land" lists three pages of place names including Adélie Land.

Reportedly Japan's first handbook of foreign place names, with entries for Australia and Antarctica.

On double leaves, East Asian binding (fukurotoji). Original wrappers, with wear and a few minor stains. Wormholing to both wrappers, resulting in slight loss. Very minor wormholing to first and last few leaves also. Small mark to spine. Overall very good to near fine. Housed in original wrap-around paper slipcase, also worn and with small loss due to wormholing. 1 v., complete. 3, 3, 49 leaves. 15.7 x 8.1 cm. Text in Japanese.

References

1 T. Urano, 'Japanese international recognition : regional study 250 years : recognition, controversy, result chronology', Tokyo, Sanwa Shoseki, 2018, p. 42.

2 T. Moriyama, 'Study in Edo: Shibata Shuzo (1820-59) and Student Life in Late-Tokugawa Japan', East Asian History, vol. 40, 2016, p. 31.

3 T. Moriyama, 'Shima kara Sekai he: Bakumatsu Chirigakusha Shibata Shūzō no Chi no Ayumi', International Resarch Center for Japanese Studies, 2016, p. 95.

Kakkoku Shoryō Bankoku Chimei Shōran
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