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Japan's national topographic map symbols, published openly by its own mapping agency and among the most distinctive in existence. What holds the group together is that most are unreadable without knowing what they once depicted: crossed Edo-period truncheons for a police box, a katakana abbreviation of a defunct ministry for a post office, the cross-section of a seed for a tea plantation, a stone foundation for a castle because the castle itself is gone. The family is the complete published legend — every symbol the GSI prints, not a selection — and each record now carries the legend term in Japanese alongside its English name. Two members record something no other national system in the catalogue does — the addition of a symbol in 2019 for stones recording historic floods and tsunami, the first new symbol in some fifteen years, after surveys found the communities living beside them were overlooking them; and a 2016 proposal to replace the Buddhist temple mark for the benefit of foreign visitors, abandoned after domestic objection.
A flattened oval with three rising wisps of steam.
A manji, a swastika-form hooked cross, on the map.
A torii gate: two uprights under two horizontal beams.
A crossed pair of truncheons inside a circle.
The katakana テ in a circle.
Two short strokes representing rice seedlings.
Three dots arranged in a triangle.
A circle with a small stalk, an apple in outline.
A stepped outline of a castle's stone base.
A cogwheel in outline.
A dot with rays radiating in all directions.
A small circle inside a larger one.
The kanji 文 for writing or letters.
A rounded shape enclosing a cross.
A small open circle marking a public office.
A circle enclosing a smaller filled disc.
A truncheon device set inside a circle.
A stylised fire hook used by Edo firefighters.
A vertical stroke above a horizontal bar.
An abacus bead frame reduced to two strokes.
A cross within a square outline.
An anchor-derived device marking a customs post.
A wind vane device inside a circle.
Two crossed strokes above a horizontal base.
The school character device enclosed in a circle.
An open book seen from the side.
A classical building front with a pediment.
A building outline enclosing a walking stick.
An upright slab on a base.
A monument slab carrying a horizontal band.
A three-pointed device marking a designated site.
A small cross-topped upright on a base.
A toothed wheel joined to a circuit line.
A line broken by regular pylon ticks.
A mast with radiating strokes at its head.
An open lattice tower in elevation.
A derrick outline over a wellhead point.
Crossed picks marking stone extraction.
A pick and hammer crossed at the head.
A plain rectangle with a single interior bar.
A low arched outline over a base line.
Two short upright strokes in a row.
A branching stroke marking mulberry cultivation.
A rounded canopy above a short trunk.
A pointed canopy above a short trunk.
A jointed stem with leaves at its head.
A fanned crown over a bare stem.
A pair of narrow leaves rising from a point.
A low spreading canopy without a trunk.
A stippled patch marking permanent snow.
Short scattered upright ticks.
Short horizontal strokes in broken rows.
An evenly stippled area.
Stipple crossed by broken water lines.
A hatched patch drawn offshore.
A line carrying inward-pointing teeth.
A line with teeth pointing away from the crest.
A line with teeth pointing into the excavation.
An irregular hatched area of solidified flow.
A closed toothed ring around a depression.
A small triangle with a central point.
A small square with a central point.
A survey point mark carrying an antenna stroke.
A thin line joining points of equal height.
A thickened bar across a watercourse.
A short barred line across a stream.
A double line following a riverbank.
A point mark where water is drawn off.
An anchor device marking a designated harbour.
Crossed fish device marking a fishery harbour.
A mast carrying three angled blades.
A filled rectangle set on the track line.
A track line carried on paired supports.
A broken track line beneath the surface.
A route line broken between two portal ticks.
A light track line drawn within a road.
A route number set in a rounded shield.
A heavy dashed line with paired dots.
A lighter dashed line with a single dot.
The lightest dashed administrative line.
A filled outline standing for a structure.