NOTE TO USERS Page(s) not included in the original manuscript and are unavailable from the author or university. The manuscript was scanned as received. 18,52 This reproduction is the best copy available. ® DMI Christophe Thouny March 2002 Faculté of Graduate Studies and Research Department of East Asian Studies Mc Gill University, Montreal Mapping Tôkyô Cartography and Modernity in]apan in the Early Meiji Period A thesis submitted to the Facu1ty of Graduate Studies and Research on partial fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters. Copyright Christophe Thouny ©2002 National library Bibliothèque nationale 1+1 of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1 A ON4 canada canada Your tRI VOlJW réu- The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant à la National Library ofCanada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies ofthis thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/film, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership ofthe L'auteur conselVe la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial extracts from it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or otherwise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son pemnsslOn. autorisation. 0-612-79041-X Canada - 1 - "Marco Polo describes a bridge, stone by stone. - But which is the stone that supports the bridge? asks Kublai Khan. - The bridge is not supported by such or such stone, answers Marco, but by the line of the arc they al! form. Kublai Khan remain silent. he thinks. Then he adds: - Why are you tel!ing me ofthe stones? 1am onl)' interested in the arc. Polo answers : - Without stones, there is no arc. Calvino. !talo . 1993 . Les Villes invisibles. p.1 ()() -ii- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 1 would like to thank Pr. Looser for his guidance during the last two years and the inestimable help he gave me in the exploration of this, for me, new field of research opened up by cultural studies and critical theory. This is not to mention the value of his teaching for my personal development. 1 am also especially grateful to Pr. Takashi Machimura for his help and support during the year 1 spent at Hitotsubashi as an exchange student. The many discussions we had as weIl as his bibliographical guidance through Japanese academics greatly enriched my work of research by giving me access to valuable sources and theoretical materials. 1 owe a great debt of gratitude to Jean-Michel Mollier and his family for their intellectual and emotional support the last few years. And of course aIl my fellow researchers from France, Rémi Scoccimaro, Dorothée Cible-Pucelle and David Malinas. Finally, 1 want to thank my parents and my brother who have always supported me since 1 decided to devote myself to the study of this strange country at the other side of the world populated by samurai and geisha. - iii - ABSTRACT Mapping Tôkyô. Cartography and Modernity in Japan in the Early Meiji Period Studies of the Early Meiji Period have until now been mainly articulated around the issue of continuity and discontinuity between the Edo and Meiji eras. Thus Tôkyô has become the central 10cuSpf production of multiple discourses on Japanese modernity, urbanity and culture. This work adopts a discontinuist approach by considering each era as two entirely distinct, although related, historical assemblages. For this, l focus my study on the conditions of production of Tôkyô as a modern urban space. The entry into modernity is the crossing of a threshold. As Edo is marked by the order of the general equivalent and the law of the sumpttfry, Tôkyô is produced in abstract space. We shift from an essentially heterogeneous space to a homogeneous, fragmented and hierarchized space. Following Henri Lefebvre, l try to analyze the production of modern abstract space as it is associated with a new mode of control of social space through administrative policies, cartography and urbanism. Mapping Tôkyô . Cartographie et Modernité au début de l'ère Meiji Les études portant sur les premières années de l'ère Meiji ont jusqu'à maintenant porté essentiellement sur la question de la continuité ou de la rupture entre les ères Edo et Meiji. Tôkyô est devenu le lieu de production de multiples discours sur la modernité, l'urbanité et la culture japonaise. Ce travail adopte une approche favorisant la thèse de la rupture. Chaque ére est considérée comme un agencement historique distinct, bien que lié l'une à l'autre. Pour cela, je centre mon étude sur les conditions de production de la ville de Tôkyô considéré comme un espace abstrait. L'entrée dans la modernité est un saut, le franchissement d'un seuil. Edo est marqué par l'ordre de l'équivalent général et la loi du somptuaire, alors que Tôkyô est produite dans l'espace abstrait moderne. Nous passons d'un espace essentiellement hétérogène à un espace homogène, fragmenté et hiérarchisé. Me basant sur les travaux de Henri Lefebvre, j'essaye d'analyser la production de l'espace moderne abstrait, associé avec un nouveau mode de contrôle de l'espace, à travers les pratiques administratives, cartographiques et urbanistiques. u'- TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgments iii Abstract. iv List of Illustrations v Preface 1 Chapter 1. Tokugawa order . Jôkamachi Edo 13 1.1. A new world order. 15 1.2. The order of the general equivalent... 21 1.3. Monumentality and sumptuarity 29 1.4. Cartographies of Edo 34 Chapter 2. The Edo.Tôkyô Transition. i[p/Ô) 13JffJi{~ .42 2.1. Edo-Tôkyô Studies . rIP JIÜ?:~ 44 2.2. A new administrative system . ~5:1'JjIJfril;,Uj\ 13 ~@j1Ti&A" 50 2.3. Land reform and gyôseikukaku 57 Chapter 3. The Colonization of Japan 64 3.1. Modern cartography 64 3.2. Establishing a new center. 69 3.3.5000: 1 Maps of Tôkyô . E=f5:1'- *J?:~iJttl:mmt~ 76 Chapter 4. "Tôkyô as a show·case" 84 4.1. Modern urban planning 85 4.2. Modern urban space 95 Conclusion 106 Bibliography 108 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page Figure 1 . The spiral of Edo aeeording to Naitô Akira 27 Figure 2 . The Great Waygates of Edo 30 Figure 3 . Nihonbashi Fishmarket.. .40 Figure 4 . Andô Hiroshige . "Surugaehô" .41 Figure 5 . The Kurobiki line and the Shubiki line 54 Figure 6 . The Toshiyori-sei and the Nanushi-sei 55 Figure 7 . The Daiku Koku system 57 Figure 8 . Survey and Cartography - Institutions 73 Figure 9 . 5000 : 1 Map of Tôkyô . b&w . Kasumigaseki area 75 Figure 10 . 5000 : 1 Map of Tôkyô . Ginza area 94 Figure Il . Original Plan of Maehikawa . Nov. 1884 101 Figure 12. Plan of Oetober 1885 101 Figure 13 . Final Plan of Mareh 1889 102 Figure 14. Tsukiji Foreign Settlement and the Tsukiji Hoterukan 107 • 1.'1 - PREFACE This work cornes out of a personal interest in maps, especially old maps, those works of art, antique but still warm, still embedded in the place they have appeared in. Looking at such maps, one has the impression to open a window on a place forever lost but still accessible by means of these temporal portaIs. Time machines? In a way, maps have that magical, surreal power. Couldn't we say the same about any human artifact, poetry, or architecture ? Is it only a question of personal, subjective sensibility ? Maybe, but there is more to this. Maps are parts of the physical realm (after aIl, it is a physical artifact), as weIl as the social and the mental ones. "Cartography resists the split of the geographical discipline into human and physical geography." J This is one of the reasons why recently, in the field of social and cultural theory, 'maps', 'mapping', and related spatial terms like 'place', 'position', 'location', have become ubiquitous metaphors for advocating 'spatial politics'. Yet, cartography is only 2 emerging recently as an academic field of research in North-America ; "Metaphorical treatments and uses of 'space' have evolved quite independently from materialist treatments of space.,,3 An interest in maps, and in a city, Tôkyô, capital of the modern nation-state of Japan. Maps occupy a central place in Tôkyô studies, although there use and production have never been subjected until now to any form of critical analysis. Correctly read, a map would give us a direct access to the social space it depicts by establishing a mimetic relationship with reality. Not surprisingly, modern maps of Tôkyô have been neglected by academic works in favor of Edo maps, Edo-zu tiF ~. This unbalance reflects both the epistemologic lack at the heart of cartographic studies and their intimate link with politics. Although there is an old tradition of mapmaking in Japan, Tokugawa cartography cannot be explained according to modern principles of 1 Bostee1s, Bruno (1996), p.115 l "Preface," in The History of Cartography , ed. J. B. Harley and David Woodward (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1987-), Lxv-xxi 3 Neil Smith & Cindi Katz, "Grounding Metaphor . Towards a spatialized politics" in Keith, Mickael & Pile, Steve. ed. Place and the politics ofidentity .(1993), pp.67-83 - 1- cartography. Modernitl , as in aIl parts of the world, produces an entirely distinct social space, what Henri Lefebvre has called modern abstract space. Starting from this initial hypothesis, we will try to show how modern cartography in the Early Meiji period plays a central role in the construction of the modern nation-state of Japan and of its capital Tôkyô, and how it produces and reproduces abstract space at ail levels of social reality.