ABSTRACT
This chapter considers how printed reference works in early modern Japan, with a focus on the Nihon sankai meisan zue (Illustrated Guide to Famous Products of Land and Sea in Japan, first published in 1799), represented nature as an assemblage of objects while also highlighting its close connection with local customs and practices of manufacturing goods. It discusses how the diverse modes of representing nature in image and text in this illustrated guide indexed a multitude of ways of expanding knowledge and of making it reliable and useful. Its eclectic style shows the intersection of manifold interests: the empirical study of nature as well as historical and literati pursuits.
