About This Site

“Exploring Japanese Landmarks in Nishiki-e and Photographs" is a digital exhibition offered on the NDL Gallery.
We find landscape photographs and paintings from various materials held by the National Diet Library and provide them in the form of "landmarks" edited by location. We mainly use images from the Edo period to the early Showa period.
We will continue to add images of various locations from digitized materials, along with landmarks.

About the Landmarks and the Exhibition’s Contents

• "Landmarks" is the name given to places that are depicted in Meisho Zue or nishiki-e (color woodblock prints) of the Edo period (1603-1868) and places whose photographs appear in publications of the Meiji and Taisho periods (1868-1912). For this reason, there tends to be a large number of Landmarks places in urban areas and along highways, where publications flourished.
• The contents of the digital exhibitions "The Meiji and Taisho Eras in Photographs" (released in 2007) and "The Landmarks of Edo in Color Woodblock Prints" (released in 2008) are also used. The content of "The Landmarks of Edo in Color Woodblock Prints" exhibition is used for Tokyo's landmarks places and explanatory text.

About the map

• The map data is based on Geographical Survey Institute tiles from the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan.
• Each landmark is represented by a pin on the map. Some of the places are represented by icons, mainly those with more images or written explanations.
• The coordinates on the map are approximate and do not represent the points where the images were drawn or photographed.

Reproduction of the contents

All images used in the digital exhibition “Exploring Japanese Landmarks in Nishiki-e and Photographs” are in the public domain. The digital images and commentary of this digital exhibition may be reproduced or reused, including for commercial use, without making any application to the National Diet Library. Please read the Terms of Use of Contents of the National Diet Library website before using these digital images or commentary.

The user must cite the source when using the Content. Sources should be cited in the following manner:

The Terms of Use of the National Diet Library Digital Exhibitions that was in effect until February 2025 can be found on the Web Archiving Project (WARP)website. There have been no changes made to the terms and conditions regarding reproduction and reuse of content (As of March 2025).

Contact information

Service Planning Division
Reader Services and Collections Department
Email: webcont