1898 - Korean Map of Gangwondo & Ulleungdo

Below is a Korean map of Korea's Gangwon Province (江原道) from an 1898 altas entitled "Joseon Jido" (朝鮮地圖), the cover of which is pictured on the left. The atlas is stored in the Koryo University Library, which is in Seoul, Korea.

The map shows the Korean island of Ulleungdo (鬱陵島) off the east coast of Gangwon Province because Ulleungdo was under the authority of that province at the time. It also shows a small island labeled as "于山" (Usan) off Ulleungdo's east shore. Many Koreans claim that Usando (于山島) was an old Korean name for "Dokdo" (獨島), which is commonly referred to as "Liancourt Rocks" in the West. However, this Korean map and many others show Usando as a neighboring island of Ulleungdo, not Liancourt Rocks. The other writing next to Ulleungdo is "船泊處," which means "a place to dock ships."

The Usando on the map was almost certainly Ulleungdo's neighboring island of Jukdo (竹島), which is about 2.2 kilometers off Ulleungdo's east shore. The map also shows five small islands off Ulleungdo's southern shore, which was almost certainly a mapping error since most of Ulleungdo's "rock islets" (石島) are located off Ulleungdo's northern shore. An 1899 article in the Korean newspaper Hwangseong Sinmun (皇城新問) described Ulleungdo as having six, small neighboring islands, of which "Usando/Jukdo" (于山島竹島) was the most prominent. The six neighboring islands mentioned in the article were probably a reference to Usando/Jukdo and the five neighboring islands drawn off the southern shore of this map and many others. The linking of the names "Usando/Jukdo" was most likely done to show that both names were used to refer to the same island.

You can click of the maps and choose to see larger versions.