Ancient regional records on geography named Fudoki were compiled in Japan at the 8th century. There were about 60 provinces at that time, but only 5 Fudoki (transcripts) have remained at present. Among them, Izumo Fudoki (edited in 733) is not only almost complete, but also contains detailed geographic data (surveying data) not found in the others. The surveying data are distances between major points, heights and sizes of mountains, sizes of lakes and isles etc. However, there are many differences when comparing these surveying data with actual sites. The Fudoki researchers had tried many times to interpret the relationships between the two, but many unclear points have remained. During the time, we civil engineers had little interest in the Fudoki. In this paper, we estimated the surveying methods by comparing the Fudoki data with map data and confirming the sites, then obtained the following conclusions. The distances were almost correct, the heights of the mountains were converted using the number of steps, the perimeters of the mountains were calculated with the trails as diameters, and the sizes of the lakes and isles were the lengths of the waterways. The surveying methods at that time were simple, but the results obtained were practical. We think that these ancient surveying methods were widely used, not in one region or one period.
| Published in | American Journal of Civil Engineering (Volume 8, Issue 5) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11 |
| Page(s) | 106-116 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Izumo Fudoki, Ancient Surveying, Mountain Heights, Sizes of Lakes, Sizes of Isles
| [1] | Center for studies of the Ancient Culture, Shimane Prefecture, “Commentary on Izumonokuni-Fudoki”, Shimane Prefectural Board of Education, 2016, pp. 12-17, pp. 49-50, p53, pp. 78-89, pp. 108-110, p. 113, pp. 149-150, pp. 152-154. |
| [2] | Katsumi Obinata, “Various books of Izumo-Fudokisho”, Annual Report of Shimane University Library Vol. 18, 2016, pp. 1-23. |
| [3] | Kaoru Yoshida, “How to survey the mountain-heights in the ancient records of Izumo Province”, JSCE Proceedings D2 (History of Civil Engineering) vol. 72, 2016, pp. 50-52. |
| [4] | Kaoru Yoshida, “Interpretation of the surveying data on the mountains in a county described in the ancient records of Izumo Province”, JSCE Proceedings D2 (History of Civil Engineering) vol. 74, 2018, pp. 10-13. |
| [5] | Kaoru Yoshida, “Interpretation of certain important traffic ways in the ancient records of Izumo Province”, JSCE Proceedings D2 (History of Civil Engineering) vol. 74, 2018, pp. 42-45. |
| [6] | Kaoru Yoshida, “The sizes of lakes in the ancient records of Izumo Province,” Submitting. |
| [7] | Kaoru Yoshida, “The sizes and heights of isles in the ancient records of Izumo Province”, Submitting. |
| [8] | Shimane Prefectural Board of Education, Asahi Shimbun, “Ancient Izumo: An Exhibition of Eternal Heritage from the Land of the Gods”, 1997, pp. 16-17, pp. 30-35, pp. 40-41, p. 53. |
| [9] | Yoshinari Kato, “Recognition on the mountains in Izumonokuni-Fudoki”, Kojiki Annual Report Vol. 22, Kojiki Society, 1980, pp. 285-286. |
| [10] | Kurashiro Goto, “Historical Study on Izumonokuni-Fudoki”, Ohokayama Book Store, 1926, p. 110. |
| [11] | Shimane University Library, “Picture of 10 counties in Izumo Province”, 1830-1844 (estimated). |
| [12] | National Diet Library, https://ndl.go.jp/math/s1/c7.html |
| [13] | Asake Hattori, “Presumption of Shimane county office in Izumonokuni-Fudoki (additional note)”, Bulletin of Faculty of Letters, Otsuma Women's University, 1988, pp. 16-17. |
| [14] | Kazuhiko Seki, “Izumo-Kuni-Fudoki, my annotated opinion - Ou-gun article -”, Center for Studies of the Ancient Culture, Shimane Prefecture, 2003, p. 230. |
| [15] | Kaoru Yoshida, “A consideration on the geography in the record of Izumonokuni-Fudoki : The government office and the most important mountain in Tatenui county”, The Annual Report on Research Activity in 2018, Center for Studies of the Ancient Culture, Shimane Prefecture, 2019, pp. 81-88. |
| [16] | Shimane Workers' Mountain Federation, “Mountains in Izumo area”, 2011, pp. 30-32. |
| [17] | Yoshinori Akimoto, “Various books of Izumonokuni-Fudoki”, Benseisha, 1984. |
| [18] | National Diet Library Digital Collection, “Izumonokuni-Fudoki”, 1793, pp. 36-37. |
APA Style
Kaoru Yoshida. (2020). Inference on the Surveying Methods at the 8th Century in Japan. American Journal of Civil Engineering, 8(5), 106-116. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11
ACS Style
Kaoru Yoshida. Inference on the Surveying Methods at the 8th Century in Japan. Am. J. Civ. Eng. 2020, 8(5), 106-116. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11
AMA Style
Kaoru Yoshida. Inference on the Surveying Methods at the 8th Century in Japan. Am J Civ Eng. 2020;8(5):106-116. doi: 10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11
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Download@article{10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11,
author = {Kaoru Yoshida},
title = {Inference on the Surveying Methods at the 8th Century in Japan},
journal = {American Journal of Civil Engineering},
volume = {8},
number = {5},
pages = {106-116},
doi = {10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ajce.20200805.11},
abstract = {Ancient regional records on geography named Fudoki were compiled in Japan at the 8th century. There were about 60 provinces at that time, but only 5 Fudoki (transcripts) have remained at present. Among them, Izumo Fudoki (edited in 733) is not only almost complete, but also contains detailed geographic data (surveying data) not found in the others. The surveying data are distances between major points, heights and sizes of mountains, sizes of lakes and isles etc. However, there are many differences when comparing these surveying data with actual sites. The Fudoki researchers had tried many times to interpret the relationships between the two, but many unclear points have remained. During the time, we civil engineers had little interest in the Fudoki. In this paper, we estimated the surveying methods by comparing the Fudoki data with map data and confirming the sites, then obtained the following conclusions. The distances were almost correct, the heights of the mountains were converted using the number of steps, the perimeters of the mountains were calculated with the trails as diameters, and the sizes of the lakes and isles were the lengths of the waterways. The surveying methods at that time were simple, but the results obtained were practical. We think that these ancient surveying methods were widely used, not in one region or one period.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - Inference on the Surveying Methods at the 8th Century in Japan AU - Kaoru Yoshida Y1 - 2020/09/17 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11 DO - 10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11 T2 - American Journal of Civil Engineering JF - American Journal of Civil Engineering JO - American Journal of Civil Engineering SP - 106 EP - 116 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2330-8737 UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ajce.20200805.11 AB - Ancient regional records on geography named Fudoki were compiled in Japan at the 8th century. There were about 60 provinces at that time, but only 5 Fudoki (transcripts) have remained at present. Among them, Izumo Fudoki (edited in 733) is not only almost complete, but also contains detailed geographic data (surveying data) not found in the others. The surveying data are distances between major points, heights and sizes of mountains, sizes of lakes and isles etc. However, there are many differences when comparing these surveying data with actual sites. The Fudoki researchers had tried many times to interpret the relationships between the two, but many unclear points have remained. During the time, we civil engineers had little interest in the Fudoki. In this paper, we estimated the surveying methods by comparing the Fudoki data with map data and confirming the sites, then obtained the following conclusions. The distances were almost correct, the heights of the mountains were converted using the number of steps, the perimeters of the mountains were calculated with the trails as diameters, and the sizes of the lakes and isles were the lengths of the waterways. The surveying methods at that time were simple, but the results obtained were practical. We think that these ancient surveying methods were widely used, not in one region or one period. VL - 8 IS - 5 ER -
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