was a Japanese

explorer Exploration is the process of exploring, an activity which has some Expectation (epistemic), expectation of Discovery (observation), discovery. Organised exploration is largely a human activity, but exploratory activity is common to most organis ...

of the late

Edo period The , also known as the , is the period between 1600 or 1603 and 1868 in the history of Japan, when the country was under the rule of the Tokugawa shogunate and some 300 regional ''daimyo'', or feudal lords. Emerging from the chaos of the Sengok ...

. He is best known for his exploration of Karafuto, now known as

Sakhalin Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, p=səxɐˈlʲin) is an island in Northeast Asia. Its north coast lies off the southeastern coast of Khabarovsk Krai in Russia, while its southern tip lies north of the Japanese island of Hokkaido. An islan ...

. He mapped areas of northeast Asia then unknown to Japanese.

Biography

Mamiya was born in 1775 in Tsukuba District,

Hitachi Province was an old provinces of Japan, old province of Japan in the area of Ibaraki Prefecture.Louis Frédéric, Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2005). "''Hitachi fudoki''" in . It was sometimes called . Hitachi Province bordered on Shimōsa Province, S ...

, in what is now Tsukubamirai,

Ibaraki Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Ibaraki Prefecture has a population of 2,828,086 (1 July 2023) and has a geographic area of . Ibaraki Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to the north, ...

. Later in life he would become an undercover agent for the

Tokugawa shogunate The Tokugawa shogunate, also known as the was the military government of Japan during the Edo period from 1603 to 1868. The Tokugawa shogunate was established by Tokugawa Ieyasu after victory at the Battle of Sekigahara, ending the civil wars ...

. He is best known for his exploration and mapping of Sakhalin (known to the Japanese as 樺太, ''Karafuto''), which resulted in his discovery that Sakhalin was indeed an island and not connected to the Asian continent, although this had already been discovered by Jean-François de La Pérouse in 1787, who charted most of the

Strait of Tartary Strait of Tartary or Gulf of Tartary (; ; ; ) is a strait in the Pacific Ocean dividing the Russian island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia (South-East Russia), connecting the Sea of Okhotsk ( Nevelskoy Strait) on the north with the Sea of Japan ...

. The strait would later be named after him in Japan as the Mamiya Strait. In 1785 Japanese explorers almost reached the

to the west, Cape Patience to the east and Urup in the Kurils. In 1808 Mamiya sailed up the east coast and Matsuda Denjuro up the west coast. From near Cape Patience, Mamiya crossed the mountains to join Matsuda. The next year Mamiya sailed into the mouth of the

Amur River The Amur River () or Heilong River ( zh, s=黑龙江) is a perennial river in Northeast Asia, forming the natural border between the Russian Far East and Northeast China (historically the Outer and Inner Manchuria). The Amur ''proper'' is ...

and reached a Chinese trading post. In 1828, he became a subordinate of Sadayuki Muragaki, the accounting magistrate, and investigated various parts of the country in secret for the shogunate, grasped the reality of smuggling in the Sekishu Hamada clan, and reported it to Sadakazu Yabe, the magistrate of Osaka town. Engaged in activities such as leading to the arrest of the suspects ( Takeshima Incident). Also, the Siebold Incident occurred in the same year. In 1852 Mamiya's maps were published in Europe by

Philipp Franz von Siebold Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (17 February 1796 – 18 October 1866) was a German physician, botanist and traveller. He achieved prominence by his studies of Japanese flora (plants), flora and fauna (animals), fauna and the introduction of ...

. Although Japan believed that Mamiya had no child, it was announced in 2002 that he had had a daughter with an Ainu woman, and their descendants were living in

Hokkaido is the list of islands of Japan by area, second-largest island of Japan and comprises the largest and northernmost prefectures of Japan, prefecture, making up its own list of regions of Japan, region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō fr ...

In popular culture

Mamiya is portrayed as one of the two main villains in the manga series ''Shin Kozure Okami (New

Lone Wolf and Cub is a Japanese manga series created by writer Kazuo Koike and artist Goseki Kojima. It was serialized in Futabasha's manga magazine '' Weekly Manga Action'' from September 1970 to April 1976, with its chapters collected in 28 ' volumes. ...

).'' In this version, he is the chief henchman of

Matsudaira Nobutsuna was a Japanese ''daimyō'' of the early Edo period, who ruled the Kawagoe Domain. First serving Tokugawa Iemitsu as a page, Nobutsuna was renowned for his sagacity. He was named a rōjū in 1633. Nobutsuna led the shogunal forces to their final ...

(and his natural son) and a master of disguise who assumes different identities after murdering the original persons. He is also possibly even more ruthless that Matsudaira, subverting various ninja groups for his own use and using

opium Opium (also known as poppy tears, or Lachryma papaveris) is the dried latex obtained from the seed Capsule (fruit), capsules of the opium poppy ''Papaver somniferum''. Approximately 12 percent of opium is made up of the analgesic alkaloid mor ...

as a means of ensnaring and controlling various people, including the Shogun. While Mamiya's historical explorations are mentioned, in this version they have been for a more malign purpose than mere exploration. Graphic novel writer Sean Michael Wilson featured Mamiya in a biography released as a graphic novel ("Mamiya's Maps: A Samurai Explores Sakhalin").

References

*Derek Hayes, ''Historical Atlas of the North Pacific'', 2001 {{DEFAULTSORT:Mamiya, Rinzo Japanese explorers Explorers of Asia 1775 births 1844 deaths History of Sakhalin People from Ibaraki Prefecture 19th-century explorers Deified Japanese men

Biography

In popular culture

See also

References