I had a chance to visit the Ino Tadataka Museum in Sawara (佐原) of Katori city (香取) of Chiba prefecture some time back. Ino Tadataka (伊能忠敬) was a famous cartographer that lived during the Edo period. He was the first person to draw up an accurate map of Japan, and his maps were still in use well into the 20th century.
If you compare his maps with a satellite picture, you will see that he actually was very accurate for latitude (given his primitive equipment), but he was a bit off in some areas for longitude. The problem of accurate longitude has been a navigation problem in the past, so you cannot blame him. Even so, he was quite close, and I think that if proper corrections are applied, his maps can still be used today for navigation (on land, that is).
If you compare his maps with a satellite picture, you will see that he actually was very accurate for latitude (given his primitive equipment), but he was a bit off in some areas for longitude. The problem of accurate longitude has been a navigation problem in the past, so you cannot blame him. Even so, he was quite close, and I think that if proper corrections are applied, his maps can still be used today for navigation (on land, that is).
No comments:
Post a Comment