2010, Vol.10, No.1

Journal of the Korean Cartographic Association 2023 KCI Impact Factor : 1.34

pISSN : 1598-6160
https://journal.kci.go.kr/jkca

This study analyzed visual measurement maps that Japanese intelligence officers had investigated secretly in violation of the international law in the last years of Chosun Dynasty. The mapping method of these maps does not have a conventional form of a diagram because it bases on the surreptitious and apid visual approximation using the eye measurement. The result of analysis hows not only the unsystematic indication of contour lines and scales but also the employment of both contour lines and hachures for the description of topographical altitude. When occasion demands, the simplified contour lines are used because a precise mapping requires time-consuming work and the legends of maps are also mostly omitted.

The survey and mapping of Hokkaido and its surroundings played an important role in the European Recognition of Korea Peninsula and East sea. The purpose of this study is to consider cartographic representation of this area in old western maps of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By the sixteenth century, European knowledge of this area was very limited. So Western cartographers positioned Japan as a large island in the middle of the Pacific, and they did not represented this area. B0ut the mapping of this area received a turning point by the Sicilian Jesuit Girolamo de Angelis as early as 1621. Sir Robert Dudley quoted Anglelis’ report and described this area in relation with Korean Peninsula. In the middle of the seventeenth century, Maerten Vries’ discovery confused geography of this area, when he received one of the Kurils to be continental. His quest influenced mapmakers for more than a century. We classified representation types of this area in six categories. Apart from Vris’ quest, we considered also the cause of mapping error of this area with the map of Japan brought to Europe by Engelbert Kaempfe.

“The government of the Republic of Korea asserts that the dual use of the names of ‘East Sea’ and ‘Sea of Japan’ is consistent with the recommendation and resolution of the United Nations Conference on the Standardization of Geographical Names and International Hydrographic Organization. However, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan asserts not only that the IHO resolution applies to geographical features under two national sovereignties such as gulf or strait, etc., but also that there is no international case that the resolution applies to international waters such as Japan Sea.” This paper proved the title of ‘Japan Sea’ was not used as meaning of international water but ‘Sea(territory) of Japan’, which was resulted in Japanese expansionism for the territory water expansion by the published map of 「The New Detailed Map of Japan, Russia, China, and Korea(日露淸韓明細新圖)」in 1903 under the supervision of Department of Survey of Japan Navy. As a result, it obviously defined parallel use of East Sea/Japan Sea title for East Sea.