View source for Mamiya Rinzo

[[File:Mamiya-grave.jpg|right|thumb|320px|Mamiya's grave in Tokyo]]
*''Born: [[1775]] or [[1780]]''
*''Died: [[1844]]''
*''Other Names'': 間宮倫宋 ''(Mamiya Tomomune)''
*''Japanese'': 間宮林蔵 ''(Mamiya Rinzou)''

Mamiya Rinzô was a prominent [[Edo period]] explorer of [[Tohoku|Tôhoku]] and [[Ezo]].

He was born in either [[1775]] or [[1780]], in Kami-Hirayanagi village, Tsukuba district, [[Hitachi province]], as Mamiya Tomomune. He studied surveying under [[Ino Tadataka|Inô Tadataka]], and was appointed by the [[Tokugawa shogunate]] to explore and survey Ezo (today called [[Hokkaido|Hokkaidô]]).

In [[1808]], alongside [[Matsuda Tenjuro|Matsuda Tenjûrô]], he surveyed the island of [[Sakhalin]] (''Karafuto''), on the shogunate's orders. On [[1809]]/7/2, he crossed over to the Siberian mainland alone, and entered the Russian Maritime Provinces, after which he followed the [[Amur River]] upstream. In the process of his 15 months of exploration of the region, he was the first Japanese to discover or confirm that Sakhalin is an island, and not attached to the Asian mainland. The straits between the two, known as the Straits of Tartary in English, came to be known as the ''Mamiya kaikyô'' (Mamiya Straits) in Japanese.

Mamiya is buried in the Fukagawa neighborhood of [[Tokyo]].

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==References==
*Plaques on-site at Mamiya's grave, 2-7-8 Hirano, Kôtô-ku, Tokyo.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/19025158250/sizes/l]

[[Category:Edo Period]]
[[Category:Scholars and Philosophers]]