• Japan in a new-found world / Joseph LOH
• The world from the waterline / Peter D. SHAPINSKY
• Elusive islands of silver : Japan in the early European geographic imagination / OKA Mihoko
• Mapping the margins of Japan / Ronald P. TOBY
• The creators and historical context of the oldest maps of the Ryukyu kingdom / WATANABE Miki
• The introduction of Dutch surveying instruments in Japan / SATOH Ken'ichi
• The European career of Ishikawa Ryūsen's map of Japan / Marcia YONEMOTO
• A new map of Japan and its acceptance in Europe / MATSUI Yōko
• The arms and legs of the realm / Constantine N. VAPORIS
• Visualizing the political world through provincial maps / SUGIMOTO Fumiko
• Fixing sacred borders : villagers, monks, and their two sovereign masters / SUGIMOTO Fumiko
• Self-portrait of a village / KOMEIE Taisaku
• Characteristics of premodern urban space / TAMAI Tetsuo
• Evolving cartography of an ancient capital / UESUGI Kazuhiro
• Historical landscapes of Osaka / UESUGI Kazuhiro
• The urban landscape of early Edo in an East Asian context / TAMAI Tetsuo
• Spatial visions of status / Ronald P. TOBY
• The social landscape of Edo / Paul WALEY
• What is a street? / Mary Elizabeth BERRY
• Locating Japan in a Buddhist world / D. Max MOERMAN
• Picturing maps : the "rare and wondrous" bird's-eye views of Kuwagata Keisai / Henry D. SMITH II
• An artist's rendering of the divine Mount Fuji / MIYAZAKI Fumiko
• Rock of ages : traces of the gods in Akita / Anne WALTHALL
• Cosmology and science in Japan's last Buddhist world map / Sayoko SAKAKIBARA
• Fun with moral mapping in the mid-nineteenth century / Robert GOREE
• A travel map adjusted to urgent circumstances / Kären WIGEN and Sayoko SAKAKIBARA
• Legendary landscape at the Kitayama Palace / Nicolas FIÉVÉ
• New routes through old Japan / Roderick WILSON
• Seeking accuracy : the first modern survey of Japan's coast / SUZUKI Junko
• No foreigners allowed : the shogunate's hydrographic chart of the "holy" Ise Bay / SUZUKI Junko
• Indigenous knowledge in the mapping of the northern frontier regions / Tessa MORRIS-SUZUKI
• Mamiya Rinzō and the cartography of empire / Brett L. WALKER
• Outcastes and peasants on the edge of modernity / Daniel BOTSMAN
• Converging lines : Yamakawa Kenjirō's fire map of Tokyo / Steven WILLS
• Mapping death and destruction in 1923 / J. Charles SCHENCKING
• Rebuilding Tokyo after the great Kanto earthquake / André SORENSEN
• Shinjuku 1931 : a new type of urban space / Henry D. SMITH II
• Mapping the Hōjō colliery explosion of 1914 / Brett L. WALKER
• Cultivating progress in colonial Taiwan / Philip C. BROWN
• Showcase thoroughfares, wretched alleys : the uneven development of colonial Seoul (Keijō) / Todd A. HENRY
• Imperial expansion and city planning : visions for Datong in the 1930s / Carola HEIN
• A two-timing map / Catherine L. PHIPPS
• Visions of a new order in the Asia-Pacific / David FEDMAN
• Blackened cities, blackened maps / Cary KARACAS and David FEDMAN
• The occupied city / Cary KARACAS
• Sacred space on postwar Fuji / Andrew BERNSTEIN
• Tange Kenzō's proposal for rebuilding Hiroshima / Carola HEIN
• Visions of the good city in the rapid growth period / André SORENSEN
• On the road in Olympic-era Tokyo / Bruce SUTTMEIER
• Traversing Tokyo by subway / Alisa FREEDMAN
• The uses of a free paper map in the internet age / Susan Paige TAYLOR
• Tsukiji at the end of an era / Theodore C. BESTOR
• Probabilistic earthquake hazard maps / Gregory SMITS
• Citizens' radiation maps after the tsunami / Jilly TRAGANOU
• Run & escape! / SATOH Ken'ichi
• Postmortem cartography : "stillbirths" and the Meiji state / Fabian DRIXLER
• Reconstructing provincial maps / NAKAMURA Yūsuke
• The art of making oversize graphic maps / ARAI Kei.

Miles of shelf space in contemporary Japanese bookstores and libraries are devoted to travel guides, walking maps, and topical atlases. Young Japanese children are taught how to properly map their classrooms and schoolgrounds. Elderly retirees pore over old castle plans and village cadasters. Pioneering surveyors are featured in popular television shows, and avid collectors covet exquisite scrolls depicting sea and land routes. Today, Japanese people are zealous producers and consumers of cartography, and maps are an integral part of daily life. But this was not always the case: a thousand years ago, maps were solely a privilege of the ruling elite in Japan. Only in the past four hundred years has Japanese cartography truly taken off, and between the dawn of Japan's cartographic explosion and today, the nation's society and landscape have undergone major transformations. At every point, maps have documented those monumental changes. Cartographic Japan offers a rich introduction to the resulting treasure trove, with close analysis of one hundred maps from the late 1500s to the present day, each one treated as a distinctive window onto Japan's tumultuous history. Sixty distinguished contributors-hailing from Japan, North America, Europe, and Australia-uncover the meanings behind a key selection of these maps, situating them in historical context and explaining how they were made, read, and used at the time. With more than one hundred gorgeous full-color illustrations, Cartographic Japan offers an enlightening tour of Japan's magnificent cartographic archive.
(source: Nielsen Book Data)

• Introduction
• Science: Ptolemy's 'Geography,' c. AD 150
• Exchange: Al-Idrīsī, AD 1154
• Faith: Hereford 'Mappamundi,' c. 1300
• Empire: Kangnido World Map, 1402
• Discovery: Martin Waldseemüller, World Map, 1507
• Globalism: Diogo Ribeiro, World Map, 1529
• Toleration: Gerard Mercator, World Map, 1569
• Money: Joan Blaeu, 'Atlas maior,' 1662
• Nation: The Cassini Family, Map of France, 1793
• Geopolitics: Halford Mackinder, 'The Geographical Pivot of History', 1904
• Equality: The Peters Projection, 1973
• Information: Google Earth, 2012
• Conclusion: The eye of history?

"A fascinating look at twelve maps-from Ancient Greece to Google Earth-and how they changed our world In this masterful study, historian and cartography expert Jerry Brotton explores a dozen of history's most influential maps, from stone tablet to vibrant computer screen. Starting with Ptolemy, "father of modern geography," and ending with satellite cartography, A History of the World in 12 Maps brings maps from classical Greece, Renaissance Europe, and the Islamic and Buddhist worlds to life and reveals their influence on how we-literally-look at our present world. As Brotton shows, the long road to our present geographical reality was rife with controversy, manipulation, and special interests trumping science. Through the centuries maps have been wielded to promote any number of imperial, religious, and economic agendas, and have represented the idiosyncratic and uneasy fusion of science and subjectivity. Brotton also conjures the worlds that produced these notable works of cartography and tells the stories of those who created, used, and misused them for their own ends"-- Provided by publisher.
"In this masterful study, historian and cartography expert Jerry Brotton explores a dozen of history's most influential maps, from stone tablet to vibrant computer screen. Starting with Ptolemy, "father of modern geography," and ending with satellite cartography, A History of the World in 12 Maps brings maps from classical Greece, Renaissance Europe, and the Islamic and Buddhist worlds to life and reveals their influence on how we--literally--look at our present world. As Brotton shows, the long road to our present geographical reality was rife with controversy, manipulation, and special interests trumping science. Through the centuries maps have been wielded to promote any number of imperial, religious, and economic agendas, and have represented the idiosyncratic and uneasy fusion of science and subjectivity. Brotton also conjures the worlds that produced these notable works of cartography and tells the stories of those who created, used, and misused them for their own ends"-- Provided by publisher.