[Caricatural maps] Ahumoros (sic) Atlas of the World. The Illustration of the Graet (sic) European War. No. 16

Satirical map of the First World War in Europe. Ryozo Tanaka. Tokyo, Shobido & Co., 1914. 39 x 55 cm. Text in both English and Japanese. Rare Serio-comic map showing the political relations during World War I, shortly after the Chinese Revolution, from the Japanese point of view.

This map was designed and printed by Tanaka Ryozo (1874-1946), who ran a print shop in central Tokyo and later became well known for producing prints of works by prominent modern woodblock artists. Although it is described as 'map of the world', it is really a map of Europe, Asia and part of North Africa. The US is interestingly shown as a man in a top hat looking at Asia through a telescope from a small patch of land that appears to be somewhere in the middle of the Pacific. The rest of North and South America and all of Australia and New Zealand are missing. The colourful and decorative map cleverly depicts each country as an animal, or more rarely as a human figure, giving an intriguing insight into Japanese perceptions of the state of the world (and some Japanese prejudices about neighbouring countries!) at the start of World War I.