Japan

Thomas Jeffreys - Stephan Petrovich Krashenninikov

1764

A Map of the Kurilski Islands Engraved from the Russian Map by Thos. Jeffreys.

35 x 31.5 cms. Coloured. Fold traces. Left side margin closely cropped & newly extended almost invisibly with old paper. 

From the abridged English edition of Russian explorer Krasheninnikov's The History of Kamschatka and the Kurilski Islands with the Countries Adjacent [Gloucester 1764] translated by James Grieve with maps and engravings by Thomas Jeffreys. Stephan Petrovich Krasheninnkov [1711-1755] a Muscovite of humble origins, studied at the St.Petersburg Academy of Sciences and joined Vitus Bering's Great Northern Expedition [1733-43] as an assistant to the German natural scientist, Georg Wilhelm Steller. It is believed he left the expedition in mid course and spent 4 years on the Kamchatka peninsula before returning to St.Petersburg in 1743 where he took up an appointment as Professor of Botany. Howes notes that the work contains "one of the earliest descriptions of Russian America and the Kurile Islands," though Lada-Mocarski believes the author never went there himself, relying instead on Steller's notes. Steller's own journal of the voyage was not published until 1793. Hill describes the work as dealing with "details of the customs, morals, and religion of the inhabitants of this peninsula as well as with the power excercised by the magicians... This is the first scientific account of those regions."  The Kurile Islands, a volcanic chain running between Hokkaido and the Kamchatka peninsula have always been at the front line between Russian and Japanese geo-political spheres of influence in East Asia. Originally they were home to the native Okhotsk and Ainu peoples. The Japanese established their first settlement in the region at Kushnukotan in 1672. The Russians followed by establishing trading contacts with the Ainu in 1697 and developed a more detailed knowledge of the islands through local fisherman, including one Japanese called Debune who was taken back to Moscow in 1702 to teach Japanese culture and language to the Muscovite military elite. The islands have remained a bone of contention between the two powers throughout the last 150 years being the subject of numerous treaties (e.g the Treaties of Shimoda 1855, St.Petersburg 1875 and Portsmouth 1905) which have set the political boundaries in the Kuriles and Sakhalin, between the two powers.  The emergent shape of the island chain is shown - Hokkaido represented as the circular Matma or Matsumay Island; Kunatir (Kunoshir); Selennoi or Green Island (Urup); Sitronnoi or Citron Island (Iturup) in the south and Puramusur (Paramushir) in the north, with numerous strangely-named islands in between - She Goat & He Goat Island, Calf Island, the Three Sisters, and the Four Brothers. Included also are the southern tip of Sakhalin and the coasts of Eastern Asia with the mouth of the Amur River. This map was closely copied by Jacques Laurent, this French-text derivative appearing in Volume 25 of Jean Francois de La Harpe's continuation of Abbé Prevost's Histoire Générale des Voyages [Amsterdam 1780]. 

Hill p.166; Howes K265; Lada-Mocarski 12; cf Walter OAG Cat.121 (Laurent map of Kuriles)