Mapmaker: Inō Tadataka

A worthy second life...

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Inō postage stamp

Ian: This Inō was an interesting man. No ordinary person for Edo. Businessman, scholar, surveyor, cartographer.

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Ivan: First a businessman, then a scholar?

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Ian: Retired from business at 49. Then studied western astronomy, geography and maths.

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Ivan:  productive second life that extended his retirement?

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Ian: A long one. Lived to 73. Physically strong too. By his seventies he’d walked more than 35,000 kilometers to map Japan.

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Ivan: A contract?

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Ian: Not at first. Used his own money, then negotiated with the government suggesting it was important to map the coastline, arguing that Russians were arriving in Hokkaido.

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Voice-over

Inō Tadataka (伊能 忠敬)  lived in the Edo Period  between 1745 and 1818. His atlas of Japan was completed by his disciples 3 years after he died. Evidently he knew how to foster followers who completed his work and archived appropriately.

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