Japanese Historical Maps

Japanese Historical Maps is a website that allows users to view a collection of approximately 850 early Japanese maps of both Japan and the world. The site is a collaborative effort between David Rumsey of Cartography Associates and the East Asian Library of the University of California, Berkeley. The maps on the website are selected from the 2,300 maps in the collection of the East Asian Library.
About the Collection
The collection of maps in the website is a selection from the map collection of the East Asian Library of University of California at Berkeley. The university came into possession of these maps when it purchased the Mitsui Library from the Mitsui family in 1949. The library contained a collection of 2,298 maps assembled by Mitsui Takakata. The majority of maps in this collection date from the Edo period through the early Meiji period. The collection has several unique collections, among them approximately 697 woodblock-print maps from the Tokugawa shogunate. In the selection of maps available on the website, the earliest image is from 1600, and the latest image is from 1970.
The selection of maps available on the website were digitized using PhaseOne digital scanning cameras, and scanned at a minimum of 300 pixels per inch. Because of the high scanning resolution, the average image size is approximately 200 megabytes on full scan. The images are then resized so that they may be manipulated easily.
Accessing the Collection
Accessing the collection is possible by using the Insight browser software, a proprietary program created by Luna Imaging, Inc. The website offers three different options for accessing the collection: the Insight Browser, which does not require any software installation, the Insight Java Client, which does require the one-time installation of the client, and the GIS Browser, which uses a Java applet created by Telemorphic, Inc.
The Insight Browser and the Insight Java Client are two similar programs, allowing the user to view and manipulate maps, as well as arrange maps into groups; however, the Java Client allows the user to save those groups into a personal collection, which can be used for future viewing or even public presentation. From the Java Client, it is also possible to export a group of images to HTML or Powerpoint.
The GIS Browser allows the user to overlay various historical maps selected from the selection available on the website. The user can manipulate thirteen historical maps of Tokyo, ten historical maps of Osaka and six historical maps of Kyoto. This allows the user to study the chronological sequence of the maps and observe changes in the geography of the area, as well as changes in the methodology of map making.

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