Page 144 - Bonhams Chinese & Asian Works of Art Los Angelis December 14 2020

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KOYANO ISHUN (YOSHIHARU, 1756-1812)
Bankoku Ichiran no Zu (A Map of the World)
Edo period (1615-1868), circa 1800
Two-panel screen, painted in ink and colors on paper, signed Koyano In an extended caption to the 1809 printed map, Koyano notes
Yoshiharu and sealed that since his pupils were having difficulty understanding double
67 3/4 x 67 3/4in ( 172 x 172cm) hemispherical world maps he has created his own. He draws on a
wide variety of sources ranging from European versions introduced
$15,000 - 25,000 to China by the Jesuit Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) to an outline of India
The map centered on China and Japan showing an unusual view taken from an influential map by the Buddhist priest Hotan (1654-
of the world with Asia clearly and accurately defined; the Americas 1728), published in 1710. Such sources allowed Koyano to create a
compressed and running down the eastern margin; Africa to the west tolerably faithful image of Asia, but his depiction of the Americas, Africa
and Europe to the northwest; with numerous names of countries, and Europe is drawn with less accuracy. For the Americas, he records
provinces, and towns, some in blocked squares; also showing Mount California as an island and adds about ten place names—in Chinese
Fuji, the Great Wall of China and a gilded star titled Hokkyoku (North characters alongside a Japanese phonetic version—to North America,
Pole); the regional zones filled in with color, the seas in blue, the colder while in Asia the Kamchatka peninsula is depicted almost north of
lands (Arctic and Ezo or Hokkaido) in white; at lower left a detailed Japan, there is a clear Bering Strait, and Russia has a large series
explanation panel describing the continents; the map laid on paper, of named places; in Europe, Scotland, England, and Ireland are also
mounted as a two-panel folding screen, with silk brocade borders, the named. Curiously the Gulf of Carpentaria in northern Australia is shown
reverse of the screen papered with Japanese account sheets from the as a frigid zone. The lettering on the explanation varies from the map
mid-1920s in the number of columns and also records an extra continent (name
The author of this map was Koyano Ishun, a neo-Confucian scholar erased), probably the Arctic regions.

with an interest in world cartography. The present screen is a Another large manuscript world map by Koyano, entitled Bankoku no
manuscript version of a much smaller woodblock-printed world map zue (Map of All the Nations), is in the University of British Columbia; in
with the same title, published by Koyano in Osaka in 1809 (digital that map the Americas are drawn as a series of small islands running
versions are accessible on several sites including the National Diet northwest to southeast; see https://open.library.ubc.ca/collections/
Library, https://dl.ndl.go.jp/info:ndljp/pid/2541228 and Yokohama City tokugawa/items/1.0227940.
University, http://www-user.yokohama-cu.ac.jp/~ycu-rare/pages/WC-
0_115.html).

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