Korea. Large woodblock map. [nineteenth-century]

KOREA

Large map of Korea. [nineteenth-century]

Hand-coloured woodblock map, silk fabric border (998 x 582mm., map; 1154 x 682mm., with border), minor surface wear, backed on thick paper, strengthened at verso along join with border

A FINE EXAMPLE OF AN ADMINISTRATIVE MAP. The eight provinces are differentiated using coloured circles, with the capital of each outlined with a red rectangle.

“Koreans have been making and using maps for more than fifteen centuries. Since most of their country's borders were naturally determined by the sea, they had a general concept of Korea's outline at an early date, and their deep consciousness of samch’olli kangsan (three thousand Ii of mountains and rivers) gave their mapmakers a general idea of what went within that outline. Underlying these imprints on the national psyche were a strong tradition of administrative and cultural geography and a nationally conceived theory of geomantic analysis. All these factors contributed to the production of interesting map” (Ledyard). The style of this map, albeit from the nineteenth century, lends to the style of the Korean cartographer Chong Ch’ok (1390-1475). “A map completed in 1463 by Chong Ch'ok had great influence and is believed to have been taken as a model by later mapmakers, so that we have a reasonably good idea of how the peninsular outline was conceived as well as of the cartographic detail involving rivers and mountains, placenames, and other features” (Ledyard).

Mountains are especially notable in Korean maps: “In general the most distinctive aspect of Korean maps is the strong visual presence of mountains, indicative of the special relationship that the Korean people have to their mountains physically and spiritually, as well as geomantically, and journeys to mountains in Korea are still part of its culture, religion and philosophy today” (Pegg).

Pegg, Richard. Cartographic Traditions in East Asian Maps. Chicago, The MacLean Collection, 2014, pp.85-117; Harley, J.B. and David Woodward. The History of Cartography, Volume 2, Book 2, Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies, 1994. Chapter 10: Cartography in Korea, by Gari Ledyard, pp. 235-345