Woodblock-printed map (830 x 1715 mm.), finely hand-colored. Edo: Sagamiya Tahei 相模屋太兵衞, 1697.

The 1697 printing of Ishikawa’s famous map of Japan; a less complex printing was first issued in 1691 (an earlier version with a different title appeared in 1689). The series of maps published by Ishikawa, an ukiyo-e artist, “established a model for woodblock maps throughout most of the eighteenth century. Works based on Ishikawa's original version, and published mainly in the area of Edo, are referred to as Ryūsen-type maps of Japan. Ishikawa’s maps were both decorative and practical, and they served as a combined... More