05.13.08
More interesting Japan-related prints
The first one is Finland-related, too. This is a map dating back to the Chinese Revolution (1911). It was published in Japan in 1914. For Finns the Russian bear is not surprising.
Image above is from http://diglib.princeton.edu
Click the image above to examine parts of the map in detail.
(Selected area marked by a blue border may be zoomed in using + and - keys;
move around and select area by clicking on the smaller map.)
Also Finland seems to have made it on the map, but in “fabric”, maybe suggesting impermanence. Many nations in southeastern Europe and Africa have been stitched together like a quilt, maybe to suggest fluctuation. America is monitoring the situation in the lower right corner wearing a tall top hat and a rifle in his hand.
[Note! All characters here should be read from right to left, as I copied them from the map that way. All romanization is from left to right, however.]
The Chinese characters are è˜èŠ¬ (”Finland” in traditional Chinese, pronounced fÄ“n lán). 芬 (fÄ“n) means fragrance, aroma; perfume and è˜ (lán) means orchid. What a beautiful name for Finland in Chinese! Of course orchids do not come to mind first when thinking of Finland – but the Chinese as well as the Japanese allocate kanji or hanzi for things also according to sounds / fonemes. As Fen lan sounds just about right, they will then pick characters with that particular pronunciation, try to somehow find two that match (as flower and fragrance) and, voilà , a country has been given a name.
In Lapland, the katakana syllables ラコ　form kora, Kola Peninsula or Kuola in Finnish. å³¶åŠ (hantoo) is Japanese for “half-island” or　peninsula.
Germany is a wild hog pierced by arrows from Japan, “Gritain” or Great Britain, and Russia.
Japan I can’t interpret. It seems to be a man with the Japanese flag on his chest. And as Japan was strongly in Korea, there is a small similar man leaning against the Cinese pig, too. I don’t know enough of Japanese clothing of that time to even try to guess the closer meaning of the guy. The map was printed in Japan, so I suppose it is not the most insulting of puns in this map. I can tell China is holding a giant looking glass over Japan, however. Formosa, or Taiwan, is being trampled under China’s feet.
