We Stand Upon the Shoulders of Those Who Came Before Us

ISSUE 48 – STEVE KOVACS FUN WITH MAPS

By Steve Kovacs (Introduction by Chuck Gibson)

LOVELAND, OH (August 13, 2020) – In Issue 48 of Steve Kovacs Fun with Maps feature we learn about the Obon Festival in Japan

Honor your Ancestors

Today starts the three-day Obon Festival in Japan.

This is a half millennia old Buddhist-Confucian Japanese event intended to honor one’s ancestors.

In modern days, this festival gives the opportunity to meet family, return to the ancestral homes, and to clean the grave sites of relatives as a way of honoring them. 

Oh, and yes, the spirits of the ancestors revisit the household altars. 

This map of Japan is by Matthaus Seutter, an important German cartographer and publisher, from 1740, when the West still knew very little about Japan and its people.

This 1740 map of Japan is by Matthaus Seutter (Credit Steve Kovacs) 

Steve Kovacs and his wife Theresa reside in Loveland, Ohio where they raised their two children. He is a passionate collector of antique maps.

Click here to visit his antique map boutique world-on-paper online. Watch for his daily feature Steve Kovacs: Antique Maps & Fun Facts here on Loveland Beacon.