OSAKA PREFECTURE, JAPAN | Three Siege of Osaka Battle Formation Maps [mid-late 19th Century]

OSAKA PREFECTURE, JAPAN

Three Siege of Osaka Battle Formation Maps [mid-late 19th Century]

Lot comprises three maps, some worming, losses, and repairs, predominantly along fold lines. 

i. Fuyu No Jin Ichi Ban (Winter campaign no. 1), 942 x 1058 mm. In brown wrappers and hand inscribed on the cover 大坂の陣、冬陣、壹番、壱(Osaka no Jin, Fuyu Jin, Ichi Ban, Ichi), depicting the interior of Osaka Castle 大阪城(Osaka Jo) and surrounding areas with bridges

ii. Natsu no Jin Go Ban (Summer campaign no. 5), 1126 x 1227 mm. In brown wrappers and hand inscribed on the cover 夏陣、五番、伍(Natsu Jin, Go Ban, Go) depicting present day Osaka Castle and surrounding wards such as Chuou, Joto, Miyakojima, Higashinari, Ikuno wards, and extending to the east including parts of Higashiosaka city

iii. Natsu No Jin Roku Ban (Summer campaign no. 6), 1060 x 799 mm. In brown wrappers and hand inscribed on the cover 夏陣、六番、六(Natsu Jin, Roku Ban, Roku) depicting parts of present day Yao city and Hirano Ward

The present three battle formation maps depict the Siege of Osaka, which were a series of battles that formed two major campaigns over the 19th and 20th year of Keichō (1614-1615). The Siege of Osaka was the final stand between the Tokugawa Shogunate (alternatively Edo Bakufu) and Toyotomi clan, resulting in the clan’s defeat and marked the definitive end of the chaotic Sengoku period in Japanese history. The present examples appear to be three in a series of six, as inscribed on map no. 6 in the lot, which mentions that maps nos. 1-3 depict the Winter Campaign and nos. 4-6 depicts the Summer Campaign. Earlier examples of battle formation maps, mostly from the Edo period are extant, and exhibited at Sanada Maru, Edo-Tokyo Museum, Tokyo, April 29- June 19, 2016, cat. nos. 168, 169 and 201. Additionally, in April of 2018, the Hiroshima Prefectural Museum of History announced the discovery of the largest and earliest known battle formation map of the Seige of Osaka from the second half of the 17th century.