Imperial Japanese Geodetic Survey, Mapmaking,Maps: In context to Ph. T. Hunting

[Ben Valmores]

Colonial Imperial Japanese Government Geodetic Survey,(TRIANGULATION to Cadastral)      Mapmaking,Maps: In context to Philippines Treasure Hunting put in perspective

Prelude

For so long time since TSEATC's existence much have been written, much has been discussed about Japanese treasure maps and Janner's  Japanese Maps and how to read them.., is the only thread (in my view) that talks about Japanese Maps, merits intellectual and educational appreciation.

This topic that i will be posting will try to put Japanese maps discussion into proper perspective and connect it in context to Treasure Hunting in general and treasure hunting in Philippines specifically.

It is perceived that this is only the stimulus for us who are in the hobby to possibly connect all the dots, after all, what we have learned here in TSEATC, though i can only try so much but i foresee more beautiful contributions from the select few members.

For this said topic to successfully deliver its content, though this may not be complete as we can predict, (since we can only have final conclusion if there is that one brave member who successfully recovers treasure who will testify and fill the missing links of our understanding about this seemingly "mysterious" treasure hunting quest), a thorough and organized understanding and perspective could somehow put more confidence in ourselves like a true seeker and later custodian of the real knowledge.

Before we begin, i enjoin the Admin TW, to please limit opportunities of those who are always in jest of hijacking a good thread, those who would not dare sweat to organize a good presentation but quick to disrupt and sow chaos.

To the select few, i enjoin you to help me put this one, like a booklet presentation and to those nuisance, please refrain, this does not concern you, instead my utmost concern are those members who truly seeks learning..

Again it is acknowledged, that this might not be complete and exhaustive, but i can only do so much, to start something to imbibe organization, to put our thoughts & understandings about Treasure Hunting into proper perspective.

Later from good contributions of those select few, we can hopefully compile a "handbook" but not a cookbook......

I am not a know it all man as someone from here have accused one member, but i'm really in constant quest for true knowledge and learning.
Thank you very much and it will be coming...

[Ben Valmores]

I would like to quote a friend by saying this, "A Geodetic Engineer is the man given his geodetic experience to unravel , if he only had the start points and scale”

To put it in proper perspective, I believe it is this way, Treasure hunting is a combination of applications of; (This topic also incorporates discussion about #'s 2, 3 & 4 below)

1.Yes -it’s GEODETIC ENGINEERING!

-no Maps has been created if the land was not applied GEODESY
-it’s about earliest Japanese survey, TRIANGULATION and not Isometric

To put it in context; Let's talk about Survey lines as "treasure grids"/ "Treasure signs"

2. It’s something about ASTRONOMICAL/ASTROLOGICAL observations

-it’s about CONSTELLATIONS: Plotting and connecting the missing points
-something about GEOMANCY

To put it in context; Let's talk about constellation pattern as treasure placement pattern

3. It's something  about  SUNDIAL---using Sundial as a compass

4. Basic concepts of Style of Decoding


First we will tackle about Imperial Japanese Geodetic Survey, Mapmaking,Maps: In context to Ph. T. Hunting

[Ben Valmores]

Basically. just what is Geodetic Engineering?

General practice of Geodetic Engineering

The practice of Geodetic Engineering is a professional and organized act of gathering physical data on the surface of the earth with the use of precision instruments. It is also the scientific and methodical processing of these data and presenting them on graphs, plans, maps, charts or documents. It shall embrace, but is not limited to, the following activities:

Professional Geodetic Engineering services with the use of surveying and mapping equipment such as graduated rods, measuring tapes, transits, levels, theodolites, fathometers/echosounders, electronic distance meters, global positioning systems, stereoplotters and all other instruments that are used to determine metes and bounds of lands positions of points on the surface of the earth, water depths, underwater configuration, ground elevation, gravity, isostasy, crustal movements and the size and shape of the earth, and other instruments used for construction survey, and those instruments used to guide the installation of large industrial equipment and machineries;
Horizontal and vertical control surveys and political boundary surveys;
Land surveys to determine their metes and bounds and prepare the plans thereof for titling and for other purposes;
Subdivision, consolidation and/or consolidation-subdivision of titled properties;
Submission of survey plans of subdivided, consolidated and/or consolidated-subdivision titled properties to the government agencies concerned; hereafter, such plans on surveyed titled properties submitted by geodetic engineers shall not be subject to verification and approval;
Preparation and making of sketch, lot and location plans;
Conduction of engineering surveys and the technical preparation of engineering survey plans such as topographic, hydrographic, tidal, profile, cross-section, construction and boundary surveys;
Parcellary surveys of lands traversed by infrastructure projects; and the preparation of subdivision plans;
Conduction of gravimetric and photogrammetric survey and the technical preparation of such survey plans;
Survey and mapping works such as the preparation of geographic and/or land information systems;
Survey to determine and establish line and grade for the construction of buildings and other structures and its attachments;
Construction of as-staked and as-built surveys for infrastructures;
Conduction of mineral and mining surveys;
Installation of machineries requiring the use of precision instruments;
Engagement in the transfer of the knowledge and technology of geodetic engineering in any institution of learning;


(We are a family of Engineers, my mom was a Civil Engineer (the first woman graduate of the University of Mindanao), my pops a Geodetic Engineer as well as my two brothers, the eldest holding both Civil and Geodetic licenses and the youngest a Geodetic.
I'm the odd.
I could have been a Geodetic Engineer too if i was not exposed to it too soon then, i was too young then, accompanied my pops in his field works, too young then to be easily disillusioned and have not appreciated the beauty of it all.
I was more inclined on the medical sciences but i dare touch the subject of Geodesy since i have many references, the very persons I've mentioned)

[admin]

Good stuff! Keep it coming, please...
TW

[Ben Valmores]

Map making was everywhere at the heart of the colonial Japanese Empire.

Documents proved, Japan early on prioritized mastery of the highest standards of cartography in the colonies and dependencies from Hokkaido and Okinawa to Taiwan, Korea and Manchukuo includes all colonized nations Philippines not exempted.

Not only did precise maps provide a means for heightening Japanese control, but the very process of map making established the Japanese colonial presence throughout the land.

Cartography also provided the basis for establishing land ownership rights, a process that frequently resulted in the dispossession of lands from cultivators and the concentration of ownership rights in Japanese hands.

Aside from their soldier/warriors the Japanese Imperial Government has platoons of Geodetic Engineers and cartographers (see figures 1, 2 & 3)

Figure 1. Employees of the Land Survey Bureau of the Imperial Japanese Government (Cartographers) hard at work.

Figure 2. A surveying party gearing up for a day of fieldwork.

Figure 3. A Japanese digging party guided by the principles of Geodetic Engineering --Big proof that Engineering  was applied in almost, if not all, in the hiding of the Golden Lily Treasure!

[Ben Valmores]

Some notable Colonial Japanese Engineers:

Terao Hisashi (1855–1923),

One of Japan’s preeminent astronomers and then chairman of its Imperial Geodetic Committee.

As the first director of the Tokyo Astronomical Observatory, the first dean of the Tokyo College of Science, and the,
 chief executive responsible for the development of land-surveying techniques in Japan, Terao knew better than anyone the credence that the geodetic sciences lent to Japan’s status as a first-rank nation (itto koku), one entitled to its colonies.



Admin now we're digging ,
but i'll come back tomorrow, so tired after travelling on my motorcycle almost all day just checking on the site that needs GPR scanning...more by tomorrow..., sign off for now..

[Ben Valmores]

Before i sleep here's something to quote;

History records many foolish notions regarding the shape of the
earth.
Although it is stated that Pythagoras and Thales taught that
the earth is spherical, their teaching was without avail, as for nine
centuries the shape of the earth was the subject of all kinds of
theories.…

The triangulation and the astronomic observations.…
made by Geodetic Surveys furnish the most valuable data for the
determination of the figure of the earth that have been contributed
by any one nation.

Each civilized nation
maintains an organization for similar purposes.


—Edward Richard Cary, Geodetic Surveying, 1916 (emphasis added)

[Ben Valmores]

Most widely held works by Hisashi Terao

On the longitude of the Tōkyō Astronomical Observatory by Hisashi Terao ( Book )

1 edition published in 1894 in English and held by 2 libraries worldwide
Observations of comet e 1888 by Hisashi Terao ( Book )

2 editions published in 1889 in English and held by 1 library worldwide
Report on the total eclipse of the sun observed at Jeur, in western India on January 22, 1898 by Hisashi Terao ( Book )

[Ben Valmores]

Another notable one;

Tanetaro Megata (1853‐1926)

High officer in the Ministry of Finance
He conducted the Jioshi Chousa 地押調査
to prepare Kosei Zu 更正図 and

realized the necessity of
the introduction of modern
cartography, especially
triangulation.

Baron Megata Tanetarō 目賀田種太郎 , sometimes (mistakenly?) referred to as Megata / Mekata Jutarō, was one of the first Japanese students at Harvard university, and one of the founders (together with Sōma Nagatane 相馬 永胤, Tajiri Inajirō 田尻 稲次郎, and Komai Shigetada 駒井 重格) of Senshū University.

For the HistorĄ-project, he must primarily be remembered as one of the few 'money doctors' in the official and semi-official colonies of the Japanese empire before 1945. As an 'assistant' to the Korean government after the Russo Japanese war, he assumed full authority over Korea's financial administration, and brought Korean currency under the Japanese monetary system - a first instant of the establishment of a yen-based gold-exchange standard 円為替本位制.

[Ben Valmores]

Embedded within military units, engineering projects, and colonial governments, these surveyors firmly established themselves as vigorous contributors to Japan’s imperial project.


Like railroads, telegraphs, and guns, maps were tools of empire Indispensable to governance, surveillance, resource extraction, and countless other imperial initiatives, maps formed the lifeblood of the day-to-day operations of the colonial state.

But the impetus behind colonial cartography was more than simply utilitarian, for, as a growing number of scholars have shown, the process of surveying was as important as the product.

The survey, after all, made for good science. And science, pregnant as it was with notions of civilization, development, and material progress, sat squarely at the heart of the imperial project.

Statistics, blueprints, ethnographies: all formed building blocks upon which Japan’s civilizing mission would be constructed. Maps were no different. Cloaked in the mantle of scientific precision, the triangulation survey showcased Japan’s superior methods.

[Ben Valmores]

please note the line,

maps were tools of empire Indispensable to governance, surveillance,* resource extraction, and countless other imperial initiatives, maps formed the lifeblood of the day-to-day operations of the colonial state.

*Resource extraction can either be natural resources and the ancient treasures owned by the colonized nations----another proof that there is indeed systematic looting of resources. This is a red area now we're touching.

[Ben Valmores]

as well as this line,

Statistics, blueprints, ethnographies: all formed building blocks upon which Japan’s civilizing mission would be constructed. Maps were no different. Cloaked in the mantle of scientific precision, the *triangulation survey showcased Japan’s superior methods.

*It never ever said it is Isometric Survey, from where in the world does NS got this term in context to treasure hunting? my rods says might be from a rhyme of his first name?

[Ben Valmores]

FM DJ's says when taking a break, I'll be back right after this important messages from our sponsors since we are not on radio, i say, I'll be back after taking lunch, watch out and more will be flowing out...... BV

[Ben Valmores]

From the cartographic point of view, it is remarkable that these colonial governments produced
topographical maps in the same manner by scaling down the cadastral maps prepared
in advance. The purpose of this presentation is to trace the development process of this
efficient map making, surveying the discernment of the planners.

During the Land Tax Reform (1873-1881), most of the cadastral maps were not
prepared with modern surveying technique in mainland Japan. Although the Ministry
of Finance tried to remake the cadastral maps since 1889 for the grasp of accurate size
of the taxable lands, complete survey with plane table was carried out only in limited
prefectures.

Learning from this experience, Tanetaro Megata (1853-1926), the high
officer of the Ministry of Finance, promoted the application of modern surveying
technique including triangulation in the land survey of Okinawa Prefecture and lead
the officers of colonial governments to extend this manner to the newly acquired
territories.

[Ben Valmores]

To shed light on the methods, tools, bodies, and rhetoric employed by the Japanese state in its effort to produce cartographic knowledge of its colonies, an analysis proceeds in four phases,

First, with a broad overview of the planning process undertaken by the Provisional Land Survey Bureau (Rinji tochi chosa kyoku; hereafter Land Survey Bureau).

This overview provides a rough sketch of the triangulation survey as it fits within the larger cadastral survey project.
 
Second, the methods and tools employed by the surveyors, and traces in broad strokes the progress of the survey from its commencement to its closing.

A third section explores the physical construction of the maps,

while the concluding section considers the limitations and lacunae of these maps and, more generally, the relationship between mapping, knowledge, and power in the colonial context.

For the government-general, the land survey was thus the key to unleashing the productive power and standardized maps—those that fashioned order out of perceived chaos.