MODERNIZATION EFFORTS OF JAPAN MEIJI RESTORATION GOVERNMENT AND FRENCH CONTRIBUTION TO JAPANESE TOPOGRAPHIC MAPPING IN 1870S

摘要

In Japan, Meiji Restoration government was established in 1868 and began to modernize the country. In the books on the modern history of cartography in Japan, the names "Jorudan" and "Bieiya" are found as the first French engineer officers who introduced and instructed French modern topographic mapping in the army in 1870s. But the details were lost and unknown, while French type maps were drawn in 1880s in Japan. I looked for them in the documents of the Archive of Army Historical Service in Paris. Also I tried to obtain related information in other various organizations in Japan and France. Investigating the documents in the Archive, I found that "Jorudan" and "Bieiya" are Jourdan, Albert and Vieillard, Ernest respectively with several maps relative to their activities, and that they were engineer captains and came to Japan as members of the second French Military Mission to Japan which was invited by the Meiji Restoration Government to modernize Japan Army of all kinds including engineer corps. Jourdan,A. stayed in Japan from 1872 to 1878. He was to work flexibly in the places designated by the chief of the Mission, and concerning the mapping, in 1873 he checked a booklet "Map Color Manual" edited by Kosuge Tomohiro and others based on a French textbook. In 1874 - 76, he visited many important places to defend as a member of the Defense Commission of the Army with the chief of the Mission and artillery captain Lebon and with Japanese members including Hayakawa Masayoshi to make defense plans with battery planning maps. Vieillard,E. had been associate professor at the Military School at Saint Cyr from 1871. He stayed in Japan from 1873 to 1876 and was to work at the Army Study School to make the curricula of the newly founded Military School in type of Saint Cyr, developed from the Army Study School. He instructed topography and directed topographic mapping exercises in the field camp near Tokyo in 1875. Kosuge T. and Seki Sadateru participated in this field camp. In 1880s, Rapid Topographic Maps without triangulation network were drawn by Army soldiers and surveyors, following the " Military Survey Manual " edited by Seki S. and others based on a French textbook, at scale 1/20,000 in color with contour lines of 5 meters interval for Kanto area including Tokyo in 921 sheets of sheet size 31 cm × 39 cm with landscape sketches on the sides, and said in Japan to be drawn in French type. Thus, the engineer members of the second French Military Mission to Japan contributed to the Japanese topographic mapping as instructors and some of the Japanese officers who worked with them became top leaders of national mapping in Japan, such as Kosuge T., founder and director of the Army Land Survey ( Geographical Survey Institute from 1945) in 1888, Seki S..chief of its Topography Division and Hayakawa M..chief of its Drawing Division.