Takahashi Kageyasu

Takahashi Kageyasu ( Japanese 高橋 景 保 ; born 1785 in Osaka ; died February 26, 1829 in Edo ) was a Japanese geographer and a scholar of " Western Sciences ".

Live and act

Takahashi Kageysu was the son of the astronomer Takahashi Yoshitoki (1764-1804) who worked for the shogunate . He succeeded his father in this position after his death in 1804 and in 1810 published a modern map of the world under the title “Revised map of the whole world with all countries” (新 訂 万 国 輿 地 全 図, Shintei bankoku jochi zenzu) on the orders of Bakufu. Then he made an accurate map of Japan, based on the measurements of the cartographer Inō Tadataka and the two explorers of northern Japan, Mamiya Rinzō and Mogami Tokunai .

In 1811, Takahashi opened a translation agency for foreign books and translated parts of the history of Japan from the book, which was based on the manuscript of the Japan traveler Engelbert Kaempfer . The Japan researcher Philipp Franz von Siebold got to know and appreciate Takahashi. An exchange of information took place in the form that Siebold Takahashi gave the Krusenstern report on his circumnavigation and in return Takahashi gave Siebold the latest maps of Japan.

When Siebold's service life in Japan came to an end in 1828, the collection of Japanese objects he had created was loaded onto the ship going to Holland. However, when shortly after sailing the ship was driven ashore by a typhoon and was unable to maneuver, and the cargo was brought ashore, the maps were discovered in Siebold's luggage. Siebold was arrested, as was Takahashi Kageyasu.

Takahashi died in custody before he was tried. His body was soaked in brine until sentenced. He is buried, like his father and Inō Tadataka, at the Genkū-ji (源 空 寺) temple in Tōkyō.

Individual evidence

1. ^ D. Keene: The Japanese Discovery of Europe, 1720-1830. Stanford University Press, 1969, p. 152.

Remarks

1. ↑ Siebold was only released after two years, but was able to take his collection with him. She can be seen in Leiden today. He had made copies of the confiscated maps before they were confiscated, so that he could publish the first measured map of Japan in the West.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Takahashi Kageyasu . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993, ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1506.

Web links

• Biographies Takahashi Kageyasu in the Kotobank, Japanese

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Takahashi is the family name, Kageyasu the first name.