1861 Royal Atas - "China and Japan"

The following map, entitled "China and Japan," is from the 1861 (MDCCCLXI) edition of "The Royal Atlas of Modern Geography," by Alexander Keith Johnston, the Geographer to the Queen of Scotland. The map shows the Korean island of Ulleungdo in the Sea of Japan labeled as "Dagelet or Matsusima." It also shows to the northwest of Ulleungdo the non-existent island of Argonaut, which was the result of a mismapping of Ulleungdo by the British ship Argonaut in 1789.

The reason I am posting the map is that it was mentioned in an 1876 letter written by Watanabe Kouki (渡辺洪基), who was Director of the Bureau of Documents in Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs at the time. Mr. Watanabe was researching the location of Dagelet Island, which was the Western name for Korea's Ulleungdo Island, and he used this map as an example of Western maps that showed Dagelet Island at the coordinates 37 degrees 25 minutes N. latitude and 130 degrees 56 minutes E. longitude.

 In his letter, which was entitled "Concerning Matsushima 2," Mr. Watanabe referred to the map in the following way:

英ノロヤールアトラス
Britain's "Royal Atlas"

Mr. Watanabe wanted to confirm the location of Dagelet Island because he suspected the Japanese name "Matsushima" (松島) was being used together with "Dagelet" to refer to Korea's Ulleungdo Island. Traditionally, the name "Matsushima," or "Oki's Matsushima," was used to refer to Liancourt Rocks, which Mr. Watanabe believed to be Japanese territory.