National Treasures & Important Cultural Properties
of National Institutes for Cultural Heritage, Japan

　　This map made of bast fiber indicates the range and area of the manor owned by Tōdaiji Temple in Imizu District, Etchū Province (present-day northwestern part of Toyama Prefecture). In the center of the horizontally oriented map, large-sized checkerboard-like grids indicating the lots of land are drawn and both the cultivated and uncultivated land are written. Letters indicating the “Border (堺)” between manors and land other than manors are written in spots in the drawing and lines in vermillion can be seen near some of the letters. Originally, the border lines in vermillion should have surrounded manors. The only pictorial expressions showing geographic features consist of two lines in ink winding their way from the upper left to the center of the drawing, with some color painted (a green pigment seems to have been used) between them, indicating a waterway. The title and gross area of the land are written to the right of the grids and the date drawn and the signature of the drawer are to the left. The part of letters including the grid part are stamped in vermillion with the “Etchiū Province Seal,” a total of ninety-eight times. This map is one of the Maps of the Fields Pioneered by Tōdaiji, as noted in the title. The manor maps called the Maps of the Fields Pioneered by Tōdaiji indicate the manor developed by Tōdaiji in the Nara period (710–794), which had been kept in Tōdaiji for a long time, but many of them are stored at Shōsō-in as treasures. Some were handed down to private citizens and six maps including this one are known at present.