After a week of struggling, a meeting with Dr. Saladin, and a closer look at some of the tutorials have got me to a point where I believe I can actually begin the basemap now. I don’t have the sources to create my own basemap of Kyoto and the street grid from scratch, however, what I’m going to do is take a few of the maps from ArcOnline and mesh them together, to get one ‘master map’ from all of them. After that, is when I’ll begin changing the symbology and then trace the inside of any structures I may have access to. However, simply getting the map down is what is most important now. After that, plotting the points of incidents/skirmishes should be relatively easy.
As for the points themselves, I plan on having 15-20 of them. That may not seem like a lot for an entire city. However, adding more is something I see as a ‘post capstone’ project, where I can research and read about more important incidents I want to include in the map. I’ll make up for the smaller amount of points, by having a good amount of information about them, and going into much more detail in the Story Map. Now that I have the skills for ArcPro down, I really do believe getting the map down will only take me a week or two, before I can move onto the points and plotting them.
Finally, as I write the project charter, I’ve finally decided on a title. “Kyoto in Chaos: The Bakumatsu”. For a small bit of historical context, the Bakumtasu Period, was from 1853-1868, and can best be described as a ‘Civil/Cold War’, between the ruling Tokugawa Shogunate, who’d ruled Japan since 1600, and the ‘Shishi’ and ‘Sonno-Joi’ movement, these groups of men wanted to overthrow the Tokugawa, and restore the Emperor of Japan to power. In reality, it was the nobles on the rebel side that wanted to have control with their Emperor as their figure head, however, the main point of contention was the arrival of the United States and Europe on Japanese shores. The Tokugawa signed unequal treaties allowing the foreigners into Japan, and the rebel side was furious. As the years went on, both sides ended up allying with the United States and Europe against the other, however, that wasn’t until open civil war called The Boshiin War in 1869.
In the 15 years of the Bakumatsu period, however, both sides were secretly at war, in the ancient capital city of Kyoto. Both sides made the ancient holy city their battleground with violence spiking specifically between 1862-1868, with famous figures like Sakamoto Ryoma, Okada Izo, Hijikata Tozhizo and Okita Souji all making appearances. Assassinations, vandalism, arson, torture of prisoners, extortion and bribery, even outright rebellion were rampant. Kyoto was the home of the Emperor, and while Edo (soon to be Tokyo) was the main hub, Kyoto was the cultural and spiritual center of the country. In my recent trip there in May, however, the sites of many of these incidents still stand, and are tourist attractions, the samurai in the city during the period which brought terror to the streets including the famous secret police force-The Shinsengumi-are cultural icons plastered all over the city. So, with this information in mind, the main goal for the map, is going to be figuring out what led to this. What effects did the chaos of the Bakumatsu Period have on the city of Kyoto, and how has it lead to the cities cultural development?
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