Japanese Train Station Map

This month's feature is a Japanese train station map with time tables for the train. It is numbered in the museum collection as #1993.005.838. The map focuses on the Ise Grand Shrine region, located in Mie Prefecture on Honshu island. The red ovals represent the major train lines, such as the Sangu Line, which is one of the oldest train lines built in Mie prefecture, made specifically for travel to Ise Grand Shrine in the 1890's. The shrine was founded in 4 BCE and is dedicated to Amaterasu, a sun godess in the Shinto tradition. In the late 1800's, pilgrimages to the Ise Grand Shrine ballooned, encouraging the construction of additional railways, including the Sangu Line. The Grand Shrine has 125 shrines within, with focus on two major shrines, Naiku and Geku. The whole complex sprawls over Ise City, and its numerous yearly festivals make it a popular destination even today. 

The map in our collection is dated February 1, 1890, and was published by Hikoichi Naito. Red denotes major train stations and locations, as well as major Shinto shrines. Pink represents minor train stations, and yellow represents Buddhist temples. Green is used to represent sacred groves, or the hills, trees, and mountains around shrines that are protected. The map is drawn with the top edge of the map representing northeast Honshu, where the coast of the Mie prefecture forms the outlet of Ise Bay. In the top right corner there is a small drawing of the Wedded Rocks, Meoto Iwa, at the Futami Okitawa shrine. The kanji used for labels is not very clear, but it appears that the scale has been distorted to include Kyoto on the left, since the kanji for 'Kyo', or Capital, is written, as well as a label for 'Old Imperial Palace'. If you can read any more of the labels, we'd love to hear back from you and get more information about this train map! 

We hope that you enjoyed this peek at our collection! We'll be back next month with another artifact. Have a great October!