Nansenbushu Bankoku Shoka no Zu - [Map of all the countries in Jambudvipa], by HOTAN ( ZUDA ROKASHI). Woodcut map drawn with Indian ink and beautiful blue colouring of the sea, Pulished: Bundaiken Uhei, Kyoto, 1710, 142cm x 118cmCatalogue Note: The much rarer 2nd state of this highly important East Asian world map. Possibly one of only 6 known copies. The first Japanese map to depict the world, including Europe and America, from a Buddhist perspective. The map centered on \"Jambudvipa“, the mythological heart of Buddhist cosmography where Buddha was born in Northern India with the sacred lake of Anavatapta (which is sometimes identified as Lake Mansarovar in Tibet), and the four sacred rivers Ganges, Oxus, Indus, and Tarim flowing from it.China and India are positioned at the centre of the world, and along with Japan, they occupy most of the map\'s surface. However, it was also ”the first Buddhist world map printed with European geographical knowledge,” (History of Cartography) though the Americas, Europe, and Africa are minimally represented as islands. South America, for example, is the relatively small island below Japan.There were 4 states of this map printed - 3 by Bundaiken Uhei in Kyoto and a more common, later one by the publisher Chobei Nagata. As Kaida states in his in-depth article on this map in IMCOS Journal Summer 2016, 145, p.41, there are a number of small differences between Bundaiken Uhei states 1, 2 and 3.The area around China coast, Mt. Fuji in Japan and the character spacing on lower left side all point to this being the very rare, 2nd state. Reference : IMCOS journal issue 145, Summer 2016, , page 35-44 by Toshikazu Kaida, K. Unno in Harley/ Woodward, ed. History of Cartography, Vol. 2, Book 2, pp. 428-29, fig. 11.59; Beans, Japanese Maps of the Tokugawa era, p.21.