Ravina, Mark. “Algorithmic Maps and the Political Geography of Early-Modern Japan.”Journal of Cultural Analytics, vol. 8, no. 3, Aug. 2023,https://doi.org/10.22148/001c.84860
Summary of Content
Adapting Cartographic Practices
Ravina’s study underscores the importance of adapting our cartographic practices to historical contexts, cautioning against the anachronistic application of modern territorial concepts to pre-modern settings.
Beyond Traditional Maps
Traditional maps, particularly choropleth maps with shaded or colored areas to denote political boundaries, are often ill-suited to representing Japan during the Tokugawa period. These maps impose modern, Western concepts of sovereignty and fixed borders on a historical context where power was fragmented, overlapping, and inherently fluid. Ravina’s critique of this anachronistic approach forms the foundation of his argument.
Computational Cartography and Voronoi Polygons
To address these limitations, Ravina employs computational tools and innovative cartographic techniques. By representing villages as points rather than polygons, he mirrors the Tokugawa understanding of political space—centered on population hubs rather than rigid territorial lines. Voronoi polygons, which divide spaces based on proximity to these points, illustrate the fragmented and overlapping nature of political authority in a way that traditional maps cannot.
Spatial Contiguity and Power Dynamics
Ravina’s analysis doesn’t stop at visualization. Through logit analysis, he demonstrates that spatial contiguity played a significant role in enabling lords (daimyo) to consolidate power. Contiguous territories allowed for monopolies on trade and more efficient taxation systems. This finding challenges longstanding historiographical narratives that prioritize a lord’s rank or resources over their ability to maintain contiguous control.
Implications for Historical Cartography
Ravina’s study underscores the need for historians to rethink cartographic conventions when analyzing pre-modern political systems. The application of modern mapping techniques to historical contexts can distort our understanding of the past. Instead, integrating computational tools offers a more nuanced and accurate representation of political geographies, helping us better grasp the complexities of systems like those in Tokugawa Japan.
My Reading Note
One of the fascinating aspects of Ravina’s work is how it reflects critically on modern cartographic conventions from a contemporary perspective, examining how these conventions have shaped our understanding of earlier political landscapes. Historians are often adept at recognizing these influences but tend to emphasize the importance of close reading and contextual research. What makes Ravina’s article particularly compelling is his proposal of two computational methods to model these earlier political geographies.
Although these computational methods are decidedly contemporary, they paradoxically succeed in better reconstructing the historical contexts of these landscapes compared to modern mapping solutions. This adds a new layer to the research toolkit available to scholars, complementing the foundation of close reading with innovative solutions. It also underscores the importance of critically applying computational methods, which are often developed with the sciences in mind, to ensure their suitability and relevance in the humanities.
Fields such as the sciences and social sciences have long accumulated statistical and computational toolkits tailored to their specific needs, often forming unique combinations of methods. Historical research, particularly in early modern East Asian studies, is beginning to develop its own distinct set of tools. I find this development exciting and am eager to see how it will continue to evolve.
Difficult Concepts
1. Choropleth Maps
- Origin: Geography and cartography.
- Purpose: A type of map that uses different colors or shades to represent statistical data across regions (e.g., population density or economic output).
- Common Applications:
- Population studies: Showing population density or growth across regions.
- Economics: Mapping GDP or income levels by region.
- Public health: Visualizing the spread of diseases (e.g., COVID-19 maps).
- Ravina’s Critique: Choropleth maps assume fixed, well-defined boundaries for the regions they represent. This method is inadequate for depicting early-modern Japan, where political boundaries were often fluid and overlapping.
2. Polygons and Points in Cartography
- Origin: Geographic Information Science (GIS).
- Purpose:
- Points: Used to mark specific locations, such as cities or villages.
- Polygons: Used to represent areas, like countries, provinces, or other regions.
- Common Applications:
- Urban planning: Points for facilities (e.g., schools, hospitals), polygons for zoning or neighborhoods.
- Environmental studies: Polygons to outline conservation areas or ecosystems.
- Ravina’s Approach: Uses points to represent villages instead of polygons for territories, as this better reflects the reality of how political power was understood in the Tokugawa period—focused on population centers rather than rigid borders.
3. Voronoi Polygons
- Origin: Mathematics and computer science.
- Purpose: A method of dividing space into regions around a set of points, where each region includes all the locations closest to a given point.
- Common Applications:
- Urban planning: Determining the service areas of facilities (e.g., which neighborhoods are served by a particular hospital).
- Ecology: Analyzing the range or territory of species.
- Ravina’s Use: Voronoi polygons help visualize the “zones of influence” of villages, illustrating overlapping and fragmented political authority instead of clear-cut boundaries.
4. Logit Analysis
- Origin: Statistics and social sciences.
- Purpose: A statistical method for predicting outcomes that have two possible results (e.g., “yes” or “no”) and identifying the factors that influence those outcomes.
- Common Applications:
- Economics: Examining what drives consumer decisions (e.g., whether to buy a product or not).
- Sociology: Analyzing the effects of education or income on career choices.
- Medicine: Predicting the likelihood of recovery from a treatment.
- Ravina’s Use: Uses logit analysis to examine how spatial contiguity—having connected, rather than fragmented, territories—affected the ability of Tokugawa lords to govern and tax their domains effectively.
5. Spatial Contiguity
- Origin: Geography and regional studies.
- Purpose: Refers to how connected or adjacent areas are in space. Higher spatial contiguity means areas are physically closer or more cohesive.
- Common Applications:
- Regional planning: Understanding how connected cities or neighborhoods are.
- Ecology: Examining how connected habitats affect species survival.
- Ravina’s Use: Highlights governance in early-modern Japan. Lords with more contiguous (connected) territories had greater control and could manage resources more efficiently, while fragmented territories posed administrative challenges.
Recommended Citation
If you’d like to cite this blog post, you can use the following format:
Zhao, Fudie. 2025. “A Review of ‘Algorithmic Maps and the Political Geography of Early-Modern Japan.’” Blog Article.https://fdzh.net/2025/01/10/Reading-Notes-DH.html.