ABSTRACT
This article examines the ways in which oceans were depicted in Japanese geographical writings and maps from the Tokugawa period. It uses these texts to understand how early modern Japanese visions of the Pacific and of maritime Asian waters constructed epistemological frameworks through which the Japanese saw their place in an increasingly complex web of regional and global connections. In the absence of actual adventure on the “high seas,” Japanese writers, artists, and mapmakers used the inventive power of the imagination to fill in the cognitive blank of ocean space. I argue that the definition of early modern oceanic space was profoundly ambiguous, a legacy that, it can be argued, left its mark on Japan’s modern relationship with the Asian Pacific region. Whether an ocean people or a single man Everyone longs for The warm currents of the Pacific Along with those waters rise our spirits The day for us to go forth has come! Our blood boils over with joy Now toward the mainland, heroically We establish bright peace as we Cross the Pacific Our ambition is infinite We will show the world the resolve Of our ocean people Looking up at the battleship flag We humbly take in the sight Of the chrysanthemum against the ship’s bow The Pacific, our ocean The wind sparkling on this very morning Let’s extend our imperial homeland’s lifeline! Fuse Hajime, “Taiheiyō kōshinkyoku” (The Pacific March), 1939
