The University of British Columbia

Introduction
Holdings
Geographical coverage breakdown
Bibliographic Access
Publications Describing Collection

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*Many of the maps in this collection have been digitized and are available online in the collection Japanese maps of the Tokugawa era .

Introduction:

Most of this collection was acquired from George H. Beans, the original collector, and is accompanied by his inventory A List of Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era. To that has been added a small collection from George Bonn, as well as a number of maps acquired from various other sources.

The University of British Columbia Library acquired the Beans Collection of Japanese maps in 1965 from the original collector, George H. Beans of the Philadelphia Seed Company. Since then, the library has added to the collection, most notably in 1986 with the purchase of the George Bonn collection of 59 maps, 15 of which are manuscript maps.

Beans collected his maps over a number of years, and had a catalogue, extending to three supplements, published under his own Tall Tree Library imprint. A List of Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Era [1] appeared in 1951, followed by the three supplements, A-C, between 1955 and 1963.

Left: KANAGAWA KO OEZU ; (Map of Kanagawa Harbour) by artist Ichigyokusai. Yokohama, Ansei 6 (1859). / Woodcut, colour ; 50.8 x 72.5 cm. / Special Collections G7964.Y6 P55 1859 I3 ; Beans 1859.5 / Note: This is a large-scale map of part of Yokohama made in the year in which the port was opened to foreigners. Yokohama is Vancouver's sister city.

The transfer of the Beans' collection from Pennsylvania to Vancouver was announced in the international journal for the history of cartography, Imago Mundi,[2] stating that "it is the [University's] intention to continue to develop it along the lines originally set out" by Mr. Beans in the introduction to his List.

The Beans Collection is the largest collection outside of Japan, and one of the largest in the world, of maps and guidebooks of the Tokugawa period, ca. 1600-1867. A number of items are rare, and some are unique. There are over 1100 entries for the Japanese maps in the Library's catalogue, including maps in atlases and other books in the Beans Collection.

Right: BANKOKU SOZU ; (Map of all the countries). Mid-Edo era. / Coloured manuscript map ; 113.6 x 55.8 cm. / Special Collections G3200 1700z S5 ; Beans [1645.2] / Accompanied by SHOHO TEIYU. / Note: Also known as the Shoho map, this elliptical map of the world is mounted as a screen designed to hang with east at the top. The accompanying plate has 40 boxes depicting foreigners.

Unlike most of the collections outside Japan, this collection does not contain many government or administrative maps. Its focus is on privately published and travel related maps and guides published in Japan during the Tokugawa or Edo period. There is world coverage, although the majority of maps are of the whole or parts of Japan. A number of prominent Japanese ukiyo-e artists are represented, among whom are: Hishikawa Moronobu, Miyagawa Chôshun, Shiba Kôkan, Kuwagata Keisai (Shôshin), Katsushika Hokusai, Ando Hiroshige and Hashimoto Sadahide. We have about 13 maps by Sadahide. Most of the maps by artists are travel related.

Excluded from the collection are non-Japanese and post-1867 Japanese maps. Maps of Japan in European languages are in the Historical Map Collection. Present acquisition plans are to acquire original maps of the period not already in the collection, and significant material published in facsimile, as well as reference material in any language relating to early Japanese cartography.

Holdings:

54 monographs (including atlases); 1 serial; 85 microforms; 276 separate maps (including 15 scrolls); 22 manuscripts (maps)[3]; 1 wood block; 2 ceramic plates.

Geographical coverage breakdown:

Geographical Area	Beans Collection	Bonn Collection
World maps	71	1
Asia and parts (excluding China and Japan)	26	2
Europe and parts	54	0
Africa	4	0
North America and parts	9	0
South America	9	0
Near East	5	0
China and parts	19	0
Japan - Travel maps (routes, rivers) - Palaces and shrines - Cities (excluding Edo) - Edo and parts - Provinces, districts and islands	50 29 9 67 67 456	3 3 0 12 20 18

Left: [TÔKOKU ZENZU] ; (Panoramic view of China) / by artist Katsushika Hokusai (Gakyo-rojin), engraved by Egawa Sentaro. Edo, Tenpo 11 (1840). / Woodcut, colour ; 42.7 x 54.3 cm. / Special Collections G7811.C1 1840 K2 ; Beans 1840.1 / Note: This attractive map of China is by the noted Japanese ukiyoe artist Katsushika Hokusai.

Bibliographic Access:

All the maps, including individual maps in books and atlases, have been fully catalogued, and appear in the Library's online catalogue.

Prof. Kazutaka Unno, a professor emeritus in Geography,[4] Osaka University, who helped to compile the List for Beans, was able to spend some time at UBC with the aid of a Japan Foundation grant. He looked at all the maps, including the addenda, revised all the entries in the List and its supplements, and prepared catalogue worksheets. These worksheets were the basis for a new online catalogue, with Library of Congress subject headings and classification.

Publications Describing Collection:

Batts, Misao Miriam. "A short history of wood block prints in late Tokugawa period," in Amphora, no. 47 (March 1982), pp. 6-14, ill. Z990 .A55 n.47 1982

Copithorne, Tamako. [Paper on Japanese travel maps in the Beans Collection, presented to the 1989 International Conference on Human Values]. Japan IBM, 1990, pp. 80-95. Text in Japanese. SPAM 23014

Jacobs, Elisabeth Maria. The Redhaired in Japan: Dutch influence on Japanese cartography (1640-1853). MA thesis. Vancouver : University of British Columbia, 1983. vii, 85 p., ill. LE3 .B7 1983 A8 J2 / AW5 .B7 279605

Miller, Mary. An introduction to the U. B. C. collection of Tokugawa maps. Vancouver : University of British Columbia, [1974]. 25 p. Unclass. Essay 1974 Miller

Stuart-Stubbs, Basil. "Historical development of Japanese maps," Association of Canadian Map Libraries Proceedings, no. 4 (1970), pp.9-15. Z675 .M3 N3 n.4

Unno, Kazutaka. "Cartography in Japan," The History of Cartography, v.2 Book 2 (Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies, edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward (Chicago, 1994), pp. 346-477, ill.[5] GA201 .H53 v.2:2

Unno, Kazutaka. "(Collection of Japanese maps of the Tokugawa era at the University of British Columbia: A letter from Vancouver)," Kochizu Kenkyu / Antique Maps, v. 16 no. 7 (1985), pp.2-4. (Text in Japanese.) GA1241 .K62 K45 v.16 & SPAM23034

Unno, Kazutaka. "(Collection of Japanese maps in the U.S.A.: Letter from Vancouver no. 2)," Kochizu Kenkyu / Antique Maps, v. 16 no. 8 (1985), pp.2-5, ill. (Text in Japanese: report on UBC, University of California Berkeley, UCLA, and Huntington libraries.) GA1241 .K62 K45 v.16 & SPAM23034

Unno, Kazutaka. Edo map collection housed at the University of British Columbia Library: A summary of its survey and its most important maps. [Osaka, 1985]. 86, 3, [18] p., ill. (Unpublished report in Japanese, submitted to the Japan Foundation.) SPAM 23042

Unno, Kazutaka. "Oku-bei ne okeru Edo-jidai chizu no shushu jokyo: Beans Collection o chushinto shite (Some collections of Japanese map of the Edo era in North America, mainly on the Beans Collection)," Jimbun-Chiri, v. 39 no. 2 (1987), pp. 16-41, ill. (Text in Japanese.) SPAM 23043

Woodward, Frances. "Cartographic collections at the University of British Columbia Library," Archivaria, no. 13 (Winter 1981-82), pp.99-117, ill. CD1 .A73 n.13

Woodward, Frances. "Maps of disasters in Tokugawa Japan (1615-1867)," Association of Canadian Map Libraries and Archives Bulletin, no. 52 (September 1984), pp.11-14. Z673 .M3 N35 n. 52

Woodward, Frances. "300 years of Japanese tourism: A look at the collection of Edo maps in the University of British Columbia Library," Western Association of Map Libraries Information Bulletin, v. 24 no. 3 (July 1993), pp.161-174, ill. GA192 .W47 v.24

Right: SHINPAN HEIANJO TOZAI NANBOKU MACHI NARABINI [RAKUGAI NO ZU] ; (Newly printed east-west, south-north plan of the city and surroundings of Heianjo). Kyoto, 1654. / Woodcut, hand-coloured ; 130.8 x 83.8 cm. / Special Collections G7964.K9 1654 M8 ; Beans 1654.1

Footnotes:

1. Reviewed in Imago Mundi, v. 10 (1953), p. 136.

2. Imago Mundi, v. 18 (1964), p. 90.

3. Plus another 86 manuscript maps bound into books.

4. Prof. Unno's field is the history of Japanese and Chinese cartography, and the geography of Asia.

5. This article contains several references to the Beans Collection and the University of British Columbia Library, and includes illustrations of 2 maps from the collection.

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