Manuscript on paper, entitled “Tōdatsu kikō” 東韃紀行 [“Travels in the Region of Eastern Tartary”]

17 hand-drawn & hand-colored illus., mostly full-page. 57; 34 folding leaves. Three parts (kan) & appendix (furoku 附錄) in two vols. 8vo (252 x 180 mm.; 265 x 190 mm.), orig. wrappers, orig. manuscript title-slips on upper covers. [Japan]: 1814.


A very rare manuscript account, beautifully illustrated and with the extremely rare appendix, of the two expeditions in 1808 and 1809 of Mamiya Rinzō (1775-1844), hydraulic engineer, cartographer, and explorer, to survey Sakhalin Island (J: Kita Ezo or Karafuto), off the coast of Siberia. The (truncated) “Tōdatsu kikō” is Mamiya’s main Sakhalin travel narrative. During these journeys, Mamiya discovered that Sakhalin is separated from the mainland by a strait, crossed it, and visited eastern Siberia in 1809, returning to Japan via China. “Tōdatsu kikō,” submitted by Mamiya to officials of the shogunate in March 1811, contains valuable geographical and ethnographic information, in which he describes many encounters with the Ainu, Orokko, Uilta, Nivkh, and Yakagir people. Much of our description is dependent on Prof. Brett L. Walker’s fine article “Mamiya Rinzō and the Japanese Exploration of Sakhalin Island: Cartography and Empire,” in Journal of Historical Geography, Vol. 33 (2007), pp. 283-313.


By the early 19th century, Sakhalin Island had become of considerable geopolitical and imperialistic interest to various nations, including Russia, Japan, France, and Britain. Several Western explorers had surveyed portions of its coast. At this time, it was uncertain whether Sakhalin was a peninsula or an island. In 1787, La Pérouse had determined that it was indeed an island, but this was based only on conversations with the natives. Mamiya was the first explorer to see with his own eyes that Sakhalin was separated from Siberia by a substantial body of water, today known as the Mamiya Strait.


From the 18th century, Japan was interested in Sakhalin as part of its economic expansion into the north Pacific (the waters around the island were rich in herring and sea cucumbers, and the island also had considerable natural resources including valuable furs) and because of worry that the Ainu might defect to Russian-controlled areas and convert to Christianity. Japan also wished to control the active and valuable commercial network known as the “Santan” trade, which stretched from Qing posts along the Amur River region in Siberia to Ainu villages in southern Sakhalin and northern Hokkaido. In 1807, the Tokugawa government took control of Sakhalin from the Matsumae fiefdom and commissioned Mamiya to explore and cartographically record the island. The shogun sought to determine the national boundaries between Japan, Russia, and the Qing empire.


Mamiya, accompanied by his fellow explorer Denjiro Matsuda, arrived on Sakhalin in April 1808. They split up, each going up opposite sides of the island. Following a brief return to Hokkaido, Mamiya continued to explore Sakhalin through the early part of the summer of 1809. Afterwards, he sailed to Siberia, entering the mouth of the Amur River and navigating his way to the Qing outpost of Deren in July 1809. Later in the year, Mamiya and Matsuda reunited at Shiranushi in southern Sakhalin.


Upon returning to Soya, the northernmost point of Hokkaido, Mamiya prepared the present report and drafted several maps of Sakhalin. These were considered to be of the greatest secrecy, and only a few copies of “Tōdatsu kikō” (apparently seven) were prepared in manuscript and retained for governmental use. Later, additional copies were made from these manuscripts.


The fine hand-colored illustrations in our manuscript show a kind of tent dwelling; a rowboat; similar boats travelling in what appears to be a river estuary; an outpost on the coast, surrounded by a wooden palisade and more of the aforementioned dwellings and boats, with people milling about; merchant craft with masts adorned with bird-shaped decorations on the shore of the estuary; a kneeling individual offering a sable or similar animal as tribute to Qing officials, distinguishable by their red hats; individuals trading what might be silk for sable pelts; a native functionary kneeling in front of a Qing official; a covered trading vessel with hens and roosters walking around on the canopy; natives and Qing officials; a boat rowing off; a man in a boat moored close to the shore, with the undulating water of the river surrounding him; an island landscape with hills, woods, and dwellings; the throngs at a market surrounded by a wooden palisade; an indoor dinner scene, with books, scrolls, and an abacus on a shelf nearby; a kayak in rough water; etc.


A colophon by Saitō Setsudō 齋藤拙堂 (or Masakata 正謙, 1797-1865) mentions that Mamiya reached Shanhai guan, the gate in the Great Wall that served as a boundary between Manchuria and China proper, but was not let in and thus returned. Saitō had borrowed the book from Mamiya, so we can assume that Saitō had our copy made.


Our manuscript contains an appendix with important additional archival text regarding diplomacy and discoveries.


Fine set, preserved in a new chitsu. Some marginal worming in the appendix volume. (Inventory #: 10964)