InÅ Tadataka
Inō Tadataka (Japanese伊 能 忠 敬, or in a respectful reading Inō Chūkei; born February 11, 1745 in Kozeki, Kazusa province (now Kozeki, Kujukuri, Chiba prefecture), Japan, † May 17 1818 in Edo (now Tokyo) ) was a Japanese surveyor and cartographer. He created the first complete map of Japan.
Early life
Inō was born the son of a fishing entrepreneur as Kozeki Sanjirō (小 关 三 治郎) in the coastal village Kozeki in the province of Kazusa ( now part of Kujukuri, Chiba Prefecture). At the age of 17, he was, by marriage, the family Inō in Sawara (now Katori, Chiba ) adopted and became the independent Tadataka. As a merchant, he successfully managed the business of the family in the trade of rice and the production of sake. At the age of 49 years he retired, widowed three times now, and went back to Edo, where he western astronomy, geography and mathematics studied as late appointee students of almost 20 years younger astronomers Takahashi Yoshitoki.
Mission
In 1800, he received permission to perform at his own expense surveying the island Hokkaidō from the Tokugawa shogunate. In remarkable for its time ripe old age of 55 years, began his mission that filled him for the remaining years of his life. With modern Western methods of calculation he finally surveyed the entire coastline and parts of the interior of Japan. Distances he determined by counting steps, whose length could he keep in antrainierter accuracy regardless of the terrain constant. His records tell of a total of 3,736 work days when he - mostly on foot - 34,913 km put back. He created a comprehensive work detailed maps at a scale of 1:36.000 and 1:216.000, mainly the islands of Kyushu in the southwest and Hokkaidō in northeastern Japan.
INOS death in 1818 was concealed, so that his employees could complete his life's work in his name. Appeared in 1821, the map under the title Dai- Nihon Enkai Yochi zenzu (大 日本 沿海 舆 地 全 図, dt " overall map of the coastal areas within Great - Japan "). It comprises eight leaves the entire archipelago in the scale 1:216.000, accompanied by specially selected coastal strip to 214 sheets at a scale of 1:36.000 and a more complete map come on three sheets at a scale of 1:431.000. The individual map sheets have each 1.6 m², the size of a rice straw mat ( tatami ).
Importance
INOS cards have an amazing accuracy of up to 1/ 1000 degrees. They were used until about the Meiji period and also made him one of the architects of modern Japan. His home town of Sawara dedicated to him a museum, which was named 1996 National Historic Site. Appeared in 1995 on the occasion of the 250th birthday a 80 -yen stamp with his portrait and the detail of a map of the Bay of Edo (now Tokyo).
Inō was buried at his own request, beside the grave of his teacher Takahashi Yoshitoki in the cemetery of Genkuji temple in Asakusa. His grave stone bears the inscription: Toga Inō Sensei no Haka (东河 伊 能 先生 之 墓, " grave of the scholar toga Inō " ) Apart from his card, he published scientific contributions to the surveying and mathematics.
The original maps were destroyed in a fire at the Imperial Palace in Tokyo on May 5, 1873, the most important copies were received on September 1, 1923 at the Great Kanto Earthquake lost. A 206 of 214 leaves nearly complete collection of copies of the large-scale map was discovered in 2001 in the U.S. Library of Congress. To have survived a total of 208 sheets.