The Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa Period Collection encompasses the George Beans and the George Bonn Collections. The George Beans collection was acquired from George Harry Beans in 1965 and the George Bonn collection was acquired in 1986 from George Schlegel Bonn as a supplement to the Beans collection.
Beans collected his maps over a number of years and it is the largest collection of maps and guidebooks of the Tokugawa period outside of Japan and one of the largest collections in the world. This collection focuses on privately published and travel-related maps and guides published in Japan during the Tokugawa period. There is world coverage, but the majority of the maps feature the whole of Japan or focus on regions of the country. 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 Utagawa Sadahide. There are also about 13 maps by Sadahide. Most of the maps by artists are travel-related.
Bonn collected his maps while teaching at the Japan Library School at Keio University in Tokyo during the 1950's. This collection focuses on travel and land use in Japan.
Much of this collection is available online through UBC Library's Open Collections:
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