Ino Chukei - Tokyo, Japan
Posted by: 
silverquill
N 35° 40.261 E 139° 47.951
54S E 391322 N 3948124
Ino Chukei gained epic status in Japanese lore by embarking on a 17-year trek of the entire Japanese nation, which he completed at age 77, producing the first accurate survey and maps of the country. This statue depicts him in full stride.
Waymark Code: WMADCE
Location: Tottori, Japan
Date Posted: 12/30/2010
Views: 11
Ino Chukei (1745-1818) is a legend in Japanese history, famed as a surveyor and cartographer. It is not so much that he and his followers produced the first accurate maps of the Japanese islands, but the way he did it that is the stuff from which legends are made.
A brewer by trade, at age fifty he set out to survey the country and produce accurate maps. After studying with Japanese astronomer Takahashi Yoshitoki and researching astronomical theories from Europe, he set out from the northern island of Hokkaido in 1800, then on to Honshu. In the process her devised several instruments to measure terrestrial distances from the stars, setting the zero meridian at Kyoto.
His seventeen-year trek secured his place in history, and his work, completed in 1821 by his followers after his death, became the basis for all Japanese maps to follow, and some of them were copied by Franz von Siebold and published in Europe.
Located at the Tomioka Hachiman Shrine, this is one of several statues of Ino Chukei (also known as Ino Tadataka and Ino Tadayoshi) in Tokyo. It is a bronze statue of Chukei in stride, with a map of Japan etched into black granite as a background, and a historical marker in front.
There is a museum dedicated to Chukei's life and accomplishments near his birthplace in Chiba Prefecture.
References:
Japan Encyclopedia by Louis Frédéric
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Nature
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Japan Visitor
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