Dumbing down the territory

October 17, 2007 | Filed Under Hiking, Japan, Gear, Climbing | 5 Comments 

A while ago I said I would write about Shobunsha’s poor decisions with the most recent map series. While I’m enormously grateful for their comprehensive offering, they really have taken some wrong turns recently, and now it is spleen venting time…

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They say that you should never mistake the map for the territory, but the Ordinance Survey maps of the UK upon which I was brought up come close to blurring that distinction.  They are topographical art. Not only is the entire UK covered, but you can even order custom maps centered wherever you chose. I spent hours when I was younger simply pouring over each ridge and contour.

The staple in Japan is the Shobunsha Yama to Kogen series, 50 or so maps which cover the Hyakumeizan (100 famous mountains) and surrounding areas.  While looking through my father-in-laws old maps from the same series I was struck by how much they have deteriorated in quality over recent years.

Laying the same maps side by side, the first thing that strikes you is how much clearer the old series were.  Strong contour lines on a pale coloured background with clear delineation every 100m.  The newer series are a disaster.  The background colour of the maps is way too strong - in good light the contours are hard to discern, in bad light impossible.  The artificial shadowing on the south and western slopes is pretty but unnecessary and only serves to increase the difficulty of reading the contours.

Worse still, and quite unforgivable, is the almost complete lack of numerical height information.  On the old series, contour heights were given in meters at their intersection with the edge of the map.  It was then easy to cross reference these and their associated background colour to any other point.  The newer series however have little discernible contour number numbering.

Once again, just so the implications sink in: the newer series have no easily discernible contour numbering.  Want to know what height you are at, but can’t recall whether the pale green background starts at 1000m or 1200m?  Either hunt around for a nearby peak (which may have an altitude number) and count from there, or hunt around the map for a completely random area where the contours have been numbered.  Not in the key, not up the side of the highest mountain on the map, but at some random point in microscopic print that blends into the background.

You might just be able to make some contour numbers out on the photo above, a little below and to the right of the 1555m peak marker in the middle of the map. That’s seriously as good as it gets. And on that map they are only marked in four places on the entire 2500 square centimeter surface.

I cannot begin to fathom the thought process behind this decision.  It would be one thing if there never was a system for labeling the contour lines, but examination of the older series shows there was - and then somebody decided to take it away. Imagine if you will being half way up a mountain in a roaring gale, no visibility to trig your location, and trying to cross reference your altimeter to the map. I’m here to tell you it is impossible.

In the unlikely event that someone from Shobunsha ever reads this missive, won’t you please, please reconsider your decisions? Don’t make me send Edward Tufte over there…