Japanese Map of the World, 1853

Printed from woodblocks and then washed with color by hand, this map arranges the world on a rectangular grid with the Pacific Ocean sitting near the middle, which pushes Japan close to the center and shoves Europe off toward the left edge. That single choice tells you a lot. European maps of the same era put the Atlantic in the middle for the same reason: mapmakers tend to place home where the eye lands first. The title, roughly "Square Map of All Countries of the Earth," describes exactly what it is, and the four small circular insets along the bottom show the globe from different angles, including polar views, as if to prove the flat rectangle above is really a sphere.

The date matters. In 1853, American warships under Commodore Perry sailed into Edo Bay and ended more than two centuries of Japanese isolation. Maps like this one, built on geographic knowledge that had trickled in through Dutch traders at Nagasaki, were suddenly in demand among a public curious about the countries that were knocking at the door. The accuracy is uneven: coastlines around Asia and the Americas are respectable, while the interiors of Africa and Australia are broad blocks of color with little detail, and the far south simply trails off. Suido Nakajima was working from secondhand sources, and the pale greens, ochres and rust reds owe more to Japanese printmaking taste than to any European atlas.