First Japanese Buddhist World Map Europe America Africa T-Shirt

Nansenbushu Bankoku Shoka No Zu (Outline Map of All Countries of the Universe). First Japanese Buddhist Map of the World Showing Europe, America, and Africa circa 1710. A seminal map. This is the first Japanese printed map to depict the world, including Europe and America, from a Buddhist cosmographical perspective. Printed by woodblock in 1710 (Hoei 7), this map was composed by the Buddhist monk Rokashi Hotan. Inspired by the 1653 publication of Si-yu-ki, a pilgrimage narrative of the Chinese monk Hsuang-Tsang's (602-604) travels to India in search of sacred Sanskrit writings, Rokashi Hotan's map attempts to update Buddhist mythological cartography.