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Interest in Old Maps Surges in Japan
Yahoo Japan’s “Tokyo Tours With Old Maps” feature, which launched in January, has apparently kindled an interest in antique maps in Japan, The Japan Times reports. Not only is Yahoo’s site — not that I can read Japanese, but does anyone have a URL? — more popular than expected, but bookstores are seeing a surge in map sales. (How about that: online maps creating demand for paper maps.) Via GeoCarta.
Here’s the main url:
http://map.yahoo.co.jp/kochizu/
The old maps are in the left hand column, and there’s one more page after you click that one to choose which topic you want. For example, to see the Natsume Soseki map mentioned in the article, you choose the second choice in the left column on the first page, then the first choice on the second page. Once you get to the maps, the four tabs at the top are (left to right) Edo era, Meiji era, Modern, and Aerial Photos.
Incidentally, if you want to check out the general Yahoo Maps Japan, it’s at http://map.yahoo.co.jp/ When you zoom in really close (like 1/8000) there are clickable restaurants and medical clinics, in addition to other points of interest.
Thanks for bringing this up—way cool!
Thanks for the instructions broccoli. Though cool enough, I was a little disappointed that they were modern renderings of ‘antique maps’.
With so many real antique maps around I’m surprised not to have seen any or many sites that have a transitional presentation of the old with the new and sat. views. Somebody took a city map I posted in Germany ages ago and overlaid it in google earth and it was excellent.
So am I missing something? Are there any antique-to-modern overlay sites out there I don’t know about??