Proportional Linear Maps of the Gokaido

• Compiled: 1806, Dôchû bugyô
• Japanese: 五海道其外分間見取延絵図　(Gokaidô sono hokan bunken mitori nobe zu)

"Proportional Linear Maps of the Gokaidô," or Gokaidô sono hokan bunken mitori nobe zu, was a set of maps of the Gokaidô, the main five highways of the realm, in 91 volumes, compiled in 1806 by the office of the Tokugawa shogunate's dôchû bugyô (Magistrate of Road Affairs).

These maps were highly detailed and accurate in their depictions of both topography and infrastructure. Location/distance markers, inns, and the like, along with the structural design of bridges, 90-degree turns in the road, and the approaches to post-stations and castle towns were given particular attention.

At least three official copies of these maps were produced, one of which was kept at Edo castle, and two of which were held by the Magistrate of Road Affairs.

References

• Constantine Vaporis, "Linking the Realm: The Gokaidô Highway Network in Early Modern Japan," in Susan Alcock et al (eds.) Highways Byways and Road Systems in the Pre-Modern World, Wiley-Blackwell (2012), 95.