Commentary on themes by historical period

　Various documents, including the OYA family’s documents and the records of local history compiled in later years, contained descriptions about how the OYA family and MURAKAWA family stopped off at Takeshima on their passage to Utsuryo Island. These demonstrate that there had been accurate understanding of Takeshima in Japan during the Edo era.

　Among the documents of the OYA family, there was a letter addressed to Doki OYA from a merchant named Soetsu ISHII. According to this letter, if Ichibee MURAKAWA were to shoot sea lions on Takeshima with a gun, they might possibly flee to Utsuryo IslandNo.9.

　In prohibiting passage to Utsuryo Island in 1696, the Edo shogunate inquired of the Tottori Domain as to the situation on and around the island. For its response, the Tottori Domain prepared a picture map that included Takeshima (known as Matsushima at the time) (shown in the figure on the right). The contents shown in this picture map suggest that they had obtained accurate understanding of the island.

　The Map of Matsushima (which was the name of Takeshima during the Edo era) is held in the repository of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo. We researched this map in FY2015. This was a copy made in 1895 based on the picture map produced by the MURAKAWA family ^(*1), and it is a rare map in the sense that it is a map focused only on present-day TakeshimaNo.11.