Scroll (395 x 3955 mm.), seven joined sheets, all finely mounted on strong paper, inner wooden core roller. [Japan]: early Meiji.

The Tokara archipelago is a group of 12 small islands (seven are permanently inhabited today) south of Kyūshū. They were originally jointly controlled by the Shimazu clan of Satsuma fiefdom and the Ryukyu kingdom, but in 1611, Ryukyu ceded its territory to Satsuma. The islands played an important role in the north-south maritime routes that ran from south China through Okinawa to Kyūshū.

At the time this cartographic scroll was made, there were nine inhabited islands, all depicted here... More