Putting Japanese castles on the map

     

Without a doubt, the most under-utilised feature of the JCE website is the map. It may well be the case that for some site visitors, it’s the only thing of interest, but as I go through the list of visitors & visited pages, it seems most don’t get to experience the Google-map goodness.

“Why would that be?” I found myself asking… myself. After a good ol’ think, it seemed that there were two things that might help.

  • Promote the map & its features even more.
  • Write a guide on how to get the most out of it.

By writing the following guide, perhaps I can kill two birds with one stone. And to all you pros out there, be sure to check out the advanced stuff. I feel certain you’ll come across something new.

The guide

There are just 12 gold castle icons. They represent castles whose main tower was built before 1868. Castles that have retained one or more of their original gates or turrets from before 1868.
A central tower exists but is a modern reproduction, most likely concrete. Castles where very little remains are represented by this dark icon. The castles range from having just stonework to just a signpost.

Moving around
Click & drag the map. It’s that simple. You could also make your way around the map by clicking on the icons, but that would be a drag.

Zooming in & out
There are several options here.

  • The mouse. Double-left-click to zoom in. Double-right-click to zoom out.
  • The mouse again. Use the scroll-wheel.
  • The left-side control panel. Click + or – to zoom in or out.

Overlays
There is a veritable treasure-trove o’ goodies to be had here. Literally, you are but a click away from a world of new images & information. The fact is that you WILL stumble-upon things new & interesting here. Just click on the appropriate overlay button from the left control panel.

Wikipedia Photos Videos

The 日本語 version
Naturally, the Japanese-language version replaces the English labels on the control panel & the information in the mini-castle-profile windows with that of Japanese. Also, information from the Japanese Wikipedia is used in the Wikipedia overlay. It all makes perfect sense really.

Searching
The final feature (which I’m sure no-one uses) is an absolute winner. It’s 100% Google’s and it works like a charm no matter what you throw at it. Towns, countries, temple names, English, 日本語, hotel names, brands, whatever can be typed in. Give it a go.

Oh, almost forgot. You can find it in the bottom-left corner. You wouldn’t want to have to search for that. :)

Advanced stuff

Roll those sleeves up, because it is here that I hand control of the map over to you. It may take a bit of getting used to, but the following information will allow you to create custom views of the map which you can then use to post in forums, on twitter or just bookmark them to peruse at a later time.

Passing values
Additional parameters can be added to the URL to alter the initial settings of the map itself. So, what exactly might that look like, Daniel? Like this of course:

Parameter Description Values
lat The starting latitude. 85.00000 (North) to -85.00000 (South)
lng The starting longitude. 180.00000 (East) to -180.000000 (West)
zoom The starting zoom level. 0 (zoomed right out) to 21 (zoomed right in)
type The starting map type. satellite, hybrid, normal, physical (default)
marker Corresponds to a specific castle. 0 (Kumamoto castle) to 128 (Yoshida castle)
view Filters records from the database. (A region) e.g. Shikoku, (a category) e.g. Original
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  • Toranosukev

    Somehow I never noticed the different overlays before. That’s definitely worth something…

    When I first came across your site, I definitely felt the map was the core, the main attraction. And I still feel that way, just don’t necessarily often have the motivation or the inspiration to go look at it. (Sorry.) But, thanks for pointing this stuff out.

  • Marisa

    Hey, I really love the idea of the map but I can’t view it properly on my laptop due to the fixed vertical resolution being longer than my screen. Others may also have this issue, still going to use it best I can to find a couple extra day outs for my summer trip back to 日本ランド。

  • Anonymous

    I’m very sorry to hear about your troubles Marisa. Seriously. For both of us. Hmmm… The height is set to 100% so I’m very worried as to what the problem is. I wonder if you have Internet Explorer.

    I do have to work on better IE compatibility. (grumble, grumble) :)

  • http://nihongoup.com/like/539/putting-japanese-castles-map/ Putting Japanese castles on the map | JapanLike

    [...] Putting Japanese castles on the map 1 community.japanese-castle-explorer.com — Without a doubt, the most under-utilised feature of the JCE website is the map. It may well be the case that for some site visitors, it’s the only thing of interest, but as I go through the list of visitors & visited pages, it seems most don’t get to experience the Google-map goodness. [...]

  • http://shinpaideshou.wordpress.com/2010/12/17/exploring-history-in-japanese-castles/ Exploring History in Japanese Castles « What can I do with a B.A. in Japanese Studies?

    [...] One of the most fascinating parts of the site is its integrated overlay map detailing all of the castles in Japan. Little colored icons indicate if they’re castles whose main tower was built before 1868, castles that have retained one or more of their original gates or turrets from before 1868, castles where a central tower exists but is a modern reproduction, most likely concrete, or castles where very little remains. Powered by Google, you can view the map according to satellite, terrain, street, or hybrid features and also see pictures and videos attributed to each area. Needless to say, I’ve lost a lot of time cruising this map and fantasizing about visiting more castles the next time I make it back to Japan. (For more on the map options, see his blog post on putting Japanese castles on the map.) [...]