The exhibit examines the intersection between art, narrative, and geography within Japanese cartography. It centers on the titular “manga map”, a rare Japanese travel map of Japan (ca. 1934) that is densely packed with manga illustrations detailing local folklore, history, architecture, flora/fauna, and more. The exhibit also includes works of Japanese art and cartography in order to consider the dichotomy between artistry and geographic depiction, and how that plays with the definition of a “map.” Open during Hatcher Library hours.

Alongside the exhibit, the manga map is also part of a new digital humanities preservation project at the library using the online crowd-sourcing platform Zooniverse, where the map will be transcribed/translated and made into a fully interactive digital map. More information is available at the exhibit.

Both the exhibit and the Zooniverse project were created as a summer internship capstone project by Joel Liesenberg, a dual-degree master’s student in International and Regional Studies focusing in Japanese studies and the School of Information focusing in Digital Curation.