An atlas of Japan, in data.
Each plate is one uniquely-Japanese dataset — pulled from public records, drawn honestly, and made explorable. Every figure is downloadable as a CSV. New plates added over time.
4 plates · 812–2026 · 1,200+ years of record
Kyoto · 京都
Twelve centuries of cherry blossoms
The peak-bloom date of Kyoto's cherry trees has been written down since 812 AD — the longest continuous record of any natural event on Earth.
Peak bloom now lands ~10 days earlier than the millennial average — a clean climate fingerprint.
Edo · 江戸
260 warlords, leashed to one city
Every daimyō marched to Edo and back every other year, his family held hostage. Each domain sized by its rice income and tethered to the capital.
The march could swallow nearly half a domain's budget — Tosa spent 44% on it in 1688.
Eki · 駅
Watch Japan's railways bloom
Every railway station in Japan, dropped onto the map in the year it opened — 150 years of a network filling in, from the first line of 1872.
The map grew fastest in the 1910s–20s — most of Japan's stations opened long before the bullet train.
Randoseru · ランドセル
The year red stopped being a girl's colour
For 70 years a first-grader's satchel came in two colours: red for girls, black for boys. Nine years of purchase data show the binary breaking into a spectrum.
Red fell from the #1 girls' colour to #5 in six years, overtaken even by light brown.
These maps are made by the people behind JIVX, which turns a fascination with Japan into the language itself — short daily sentences, graded the way a teacher would, not flashcards.
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