Pilot Report

A Frenchman named Liancourt, whaling in the Sea of Japan in 1849, reported the discovery of an island, Dokdo . Ever since then, Dokdo began to appear on European maps as Liancourt Rocks. In 1854, a Russian battleship ‘Palleda’ was known to also have surveyed Dokdo and named it Olivutsa Rocks and Manala despite Dokdo’s continued listing in the European map as Liancourt Rocks.

Old maps are understandably not used for today’s sophisticated navigation apperatouses. But, the minds and hearts of people in ancient times can be traces by perusing old maps . They often amaze with both their wisdom and the vast ignorance of the ancient mapmakers, and more often than not, learn about the history through them.

Old maps in Japan didn’t record the presence of Dokdo. In the Tokugawa Shogunate period, between 1648 and 1702, both Ulleung-do and Dokdo did not even appear in the maps published. Japaneses fishermen were confuse when Nakagubo published Japan’s map in which Dokdo was printed as Matsushima and Ulleung-do as Takeshima. The map was printed on wooden blocks and was colored differently from the islands of Japan. In 1785, an Illustrated General Survey of Three Countries, revealed the national boundary line next to Okinoshima and it used different colors from the Japanese territory just as Nakagubo did; they both drew Okinoshima as Japan’s northern boundary line.

It’s not easy to say when Dokdo first appeared on a Korean map, because most of the original maps were destroyed during may wars, and at that time period, many mapmakers didn’t record the publication dates. But, Koreans should be proud of Kim Jung-ho production of some maps of Korea in the 18th century. They were surprisingly accurate even by today’s standards. Searching for the truth concerning Dokdo from old maps is fascinating and intriguing, proving old maps are a valuable source for these modern times.

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