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Title
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eng
Shonin Ichidai Dochūzu
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Alternative Title
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諸人一代道中圖
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Description
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eng
This Edo-period Japanese “life journey” map employs geographic visualization to demonstrate the ways to achieve an ideal moral life. The map’s apparent vertical orientation symbolically elevates virtue and enlightenment at the top, while undesirable states or moral failings are relegated to the bottom. Six pathways intersect at the “crossroads of six realms,” labeled at the map’s center. One’s journey would begin at Mount Imose (representing a “primitive” status), which is located at the bottom of the map. All six paths inevitably encounter several obstacles, including “luxury bridge,” “adultery valley,” and “prostitution hills”. The map forces these challenges to be transcended to reach the top of the map, where five Confucian virtues are represented by mountains: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness. More notable features embodying Confucian values can be identified via moralized topography, such as “Mount Filial Piety,” “Mount Honesty,” and the “Hall of Great Learning” (a structure in the top left appearing to provide direct access to the five mountains of virtue). This map enjoins Confucian ideologies, using an imaginary spatial journey to show how a moral life can be perfected over time. The idea of multiple “realms” accessible from the crossroads may suggest the influence of Buddhist cosmological beliefs. In this map, the roads to the final goal are circuitous, and the definition of success is multidimensional.
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Creator/agency who created the original map
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eng
Setsuyō: Nomura Bunkandō (摂陽 : 野村文煥堂 )
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Date
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1756
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Genre
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eng
Early Maps to 1800
Confucian/Buddhist Life Map
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Places shown in the map
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eng
Imaginary “pathways” of life; mountains representing five Confucian virtues; other natural topography include trees, marshes, rivers, and fields; various houses, temples, shrines dot the landscape
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Rights
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eng
Carleton College Gould Library
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Contributor
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eng
Kristoff Cao
Brandon Hamilton
Alek Pochan
Jerry Shang
Min Wang
