Printing Landmarks: Popular Geography and <i>Meisho Zue</i> in Late Tokugawa Japan

Printing Landmarks explores the popularity of meisho zue, monumental books that showcased famous places in the late Tokugawa period, through the choices editors and illustrators made about form, content, and process. These books enabled readers to experience places located all over the Japanese archipelago, contributing to Tokugawa-period culture's emphasis on social harmony, economic prosperity, and natural stability.

\n Format: Hardback
\n Length: 400 pages
\n Publication date: 30 October 2020
\n Publisher: Harvard University, Asia Center
\n

Printing Landmarks delves into the captivating world of meisho zue, a unique and influential form of popular geography that emerged during the late Tokugawa periods. These monumental books, starting with the publication of "Miyako meisho zue" in 1780, took a different approach to showcasing famous places (meisho) by employing meticulously detailed illustrations and informative prose. Unlike earlier guidebooks and gazetteers, meisho zue went beyond the limitations of scope, quality, and reliability, offering readers a captivating experience of places located across the vast Japanese archipelago. Through this groundbreaking multidisciplinary study, Robert Goree explores the enduring popularity of meisho zue. By examining its readership, compilation practices, illustration techniques, cartographic properties, ideological import, and production networks, Goree uncovers the deliberate choices made by editors and illustrators that contributed to the books' appeal. Spanning the fields of book history, travel literature, map history, and visual culture, Printing Landmarks offers a fresh perspective on Tokugawa-period culture by revealing how meisho zue depicted inspiring geographies characterized by social harmony, economic prosperity, and natural stability, creating a peaceful polity.

\n Weight: 1022g\n
Dimension: 187 x 262 x 32 (mm)\n
ISBN-13: 9780674247871\n \n