Unprecedented collection of maps of Japan offered by Daniel Crouch Rare Books in Tokyo

Daniel Crouch Rare Books offers what is dubbed the largest collection of maps of Japan ever to come on the open market at this week’s Tokyo Book Fair.

The Jason C Hubbard Collection comprises nearly 400 individual examples, made from 1522-1960, 220 of which were printed before 1800. There are also around 150 regional, city and road maps of Japan including manuscript ephemera.

The collection is offered together for $2.2m (£1.6m).

Hubbard, now a retired businessman, bought his first map in 1971 and over the course of his collecting career has acquired more than 800 items relating to Japan.

Among the highlights are the only known example of Christophoro Blancus and Inácio Moreira’s map, the most accurate representation of the country when it was engraved and published in Rome in 1617.

A rare first edition of Hendrick Doncker’s sea chart of the Indian Ocean, is one of the earliest maps to chart Dutch exploration in Australia and demonstrates the wider reach of the collection.

The exhibition coincides with the publication of the Japanese language edition of Hubbard’s book Japoniae Insulae: The Mapping of Japan.

The fair runs from March 23-25.