1875 Stieler "Hand Atlas," Map of Japan, Korea, and China

The following map, entitled "China, Korea, and Japan," is from the 1875 edition of the Stieler "Hand Atlas," which is recognized as "one of the most comphrehensive and best executed 19th century German atlases," according to the David Rumsey Map Collection Web site. The map itself has printed on it: "Gotha: Justus Perthes 1872," which seems to be the publisher and date of the original map. You can read more about the map on the David Rumsey Map Collection Web site HERE.

The reason I am posting the map is that Watanabe Kouki (渡辺洪基) mentioned it in his second 1876 letter entitled "Concerning Matsushima." Mr. Watanabe was the  Director of the Bureau of Documents in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time. The Japanese reference in his letter was as follows:

千八百七十五年ゴッ タノスチールスノアトラス
1875 Gotha: "Stieler Atlas"

Mr. Watanabe used the map as one of several examples of Western maps that showed "Matsushima" as Dagelet Island (Ulleungdo), at the coordinates 37 degrees 25 minutes N. latitude and 130 degrees 56 minutes E. longitude. 

The map also showed Liancourt Rocks labeled both as "Liancourt In." and "Hornet In." In his letter, Mr Watanabe referred to Liancourt Rocks as "Oki's Matsushima." The purpose of the letter was to determine if Ulleungdo was also being referring to as "Matsushima." Mr. Watanabe considered "Oki's Matsushima" (Liancourt Rocks) to be Japanese territory, but he was uncertain of the other Matsushima, which he suspected was Ulleungdo.

Though the map draws the boundry between Japan and Korea to the west of Ulleungdo (Dagelet I.), Ullleungdo was already recognized by Japan as Korean territory. The mapmaker must have heard of the the Japanese island of Matsushima and assumed it was referring to Ulleungdo instead of Liancourt Rocks.