WWI Imperial Japanese Navy Kurama Flagship Sailor Hand Drawn Route Map 1919 For Sale

DescriptionThis is an original handwritten navigation document associated with the Imperial Japanese Navy battlecruiser Kurama in 1919.At the upper right, the document is inscribed:“Fiscal Year 1919
Warship Kurama (Flagship)
Outline Map of Actual and Planned Routes”Also written nearby is:“2nd Class Seaman – Yonezo Ohashi”The abbreviation appears to indicate Second Class Seaman, suggesting that Yonezo Ohashi was likely the original owner, user, or possibly the person who prepared this document. However, because direct authorship cannot be proven, this should be understood as a careful interpretation rather than a confirmed attribution.The map itself is hand drawn and shows Japan, the Korean Peninsula, the Russian Far East, and surrounding waters.Numerous handwritten place names, route lines, and dates appear across the sheet, creating what looks like a working record of the ship’s actual and planned movements.This is not a commercially printed map or textbook illustration.It appears to have been a personal-use naval route record connected to an actual sailor serving aboard Kurama.The date is especially important.In 1919, Kurama served with the Imperial Japanese Navy’s 3rd Fleet and took part in operations connected with the Siberian Intervention, during the period of turmoil following the Russian Revolution and World War I.Kurama operated in waters around northern Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East, making the geographic content of this map highly consistent with the historical movements of the ship during that period.What makes this document especially compelling is the presence of an individual sailor’s name.Rather than preserving only the history of a famous warship, it also preserves the trace of one man:Yonezo Ohashi, Second Class Seaman.That turns the piece from a simple route map into a much more personal historical record.The paper shows significant age-related wear, including folds, stains, tears, edge loss, and general handling wear. These condition issues are clearly visible in the photographs and are consistent with an original field-used document from more than a century ago.A highly interesting piece for collectors of Imperial Japanese Navy material, battlecruiser Kurama, Siberian Intervention history, naval navigation documents, sailor-used maps, and early 20th-century Japanese military ephemera.One sailor’s voyage still survives here as a line drawn across the map.Own a Piece of History.Shipping

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