Information Literacy Resources: Geography

Kristina Troost, PhD
Course: Research Methods in Japanese Studies, 2005 Spring,
Duke University

Resources for the Geography of Japan

Includes:

• Bibliographies
• Readings for Place Names
• Dictionaries/Gazetteers
• Local History Dictionaries, Handbooks, and Chronologies
• Atlases: General; Historical; Contemporary Japanese National Atlases
• Web Links

Kristina Kade Troost, PhD Librarian for Japan and Korea
Perkins Library, Duke University
Last Update: 05/22/02

1. Take a place in Japan which you know well or which interests you (Tokyo is so large that if you choose it, you will need to choose a section of it) and find out everything you can about it, its history before 1868, its development in the prewar era, its wartime experience, its present situation. Use:
   1. Kadokawa Nihon chimei jiten 角川日本地名辞典
      EA Ref: 915.2003 K11 1978
   2. Nihon zushi taikei. 日本図誌体系。
      EA Ref: 912.52 qN691
   3. Nihon toshi sensai chizu. 日本都市戦災地図
      EA Ref Folio: f940.5352 N691 1983
   4. Nihon bunken chizu chimei soran 1993 : kokyo kikan, chikeizu sakuin, jidosha rosen eigyo kiroteizu. 日本分県地図地名総覧１９９３：公共機関地系図索引、自動車路線営業キロ程図。 EA Ref: 912.52 N691 1992 -- see earlier editions as well
   5. Meiji Taisho Nihon toshi chizu shusei. 明治大正日本都市地図集成 EA Ref Folio: 912.52 M512, 1986
   6. Showa zenki Nihon toshi chizu shusei. 昭和前期日本都市地図集成 EA Ref Folio: 912.52 S559, 1986
   7. See other atlases if relevant (esp. for Tokyo) http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/geography.html#atlas
2. How much travel information can you find on the web for Japan?
   1. See http://www.lib.duke.edu/ias/eac/jpntravel.htm
   2. Compare Jalan: Recreation, Travel and Sightseeing Information (in Japanese) http://www.isize.com/travel/ with Travel and Sightseeing Information
      http://web.kyoto–inet.or.jp/people/harunobu/travel.html and a site for foreign tourists maintained by the Japanese National Tourist Organization http://www.jnto.go.jp/
   3. Look at the web site maintained by the Kokudo Chiriin http://www.gsi.go.jp/ Compare it to US Geological Survey http://www.usgs.gov/. Do they have different missions?
3. How do you read the following address: 練馬区向山
   hint: try using Nihon bunken chizu chimei sōran
4. Look through Nihon shuyo chizu shusei : Meiji kara gendai made 日本主要地図集成：明治から現代まで
   EAC: 016.91252 N691, 1995 (I will put it in EA ref temporarily).
   Consider format, use of color, the purposes of mapping. You may want to look at Isles of Gold : Antique Maps of Japan, PL: q912.52 C827 I82 1983 or "Cartography in Japan" by Unno Kazutaka, in Cartography in the Traditional East and Southeast Asian Societies, The History of Cartography, vol. 2, PL: 526.09 H673, 1987
5. Reading place names:
   1. Old place names: look at Chimei reddo deta bukku = Red Data Gazetteer of Japan. 地名レッドデータブック。 EA Ref: 915.2003 K16 C538 1994
      1. How many old readings are there for 上野
   2. Current place names: Shin Nihon chimei sakuin = New Index Gazetteer of Japan. 新日本地名索引。3v.
      EA Ref: 915.2003 K16 S556 1993 Based on current 1:25,000 maps. Includes over 1 million place names. Volume One is arranged by reading (gojuon); Volumes Two and Three are arranged by Chinese characters.
      1. How many readings can you find for 日向. What are they?
      2. How do you read 間人? 及位?