What Was Here Before Tokyo?

In 1586 the timeline of Kyoto is full. The next entry is 1788. For those same 200 years, European mapmakers kept printing Japan — but not the Japan we know. Meaco instead of Kyoto. Segemy where Tokyo stands today. Korea drawn as an island. A wall labeled "the great wall of Tartaria." And on a Dutch engraving from 1669, a Japanese ship flying a flag I can't place in Japanese history. In this episode I read the old names off the paper, one at a time, and follow each one until it disappears — through castle towns, a star fort on Google Earth, a fleet defeated by warriors in the sky, and the great fires of the 1800s. Do you know an old map of your own country with a name nobody can explain? Tell me in the comments. SOURCES & MAPS SHOWN Arnold Montanus (1669) · John Speed, Asia map (1626) · Jakob van Schley, plan of Kyoto (1757) · "Vue et description de la ville de Meaco" · Ossacco & Edo panoramas (1680) · Siege of Osaka Castle (1669) · Utagawa Sadahide, Defeat of the Mongols in the Western Sea (1863) · Flammarion, Popular Astronomy (1894 American ed.) #japanhistory #oldmaps