File:Kite-shaped Japan introduced by Mercator -- the plate for the map was engraved in 1570.jpg

English: "Indiae Orientalis, Insularumque Adiacientium Typus," from the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius, 1603 Latin edition. "This scarce and important original map of East Asia (49.5 x 35 cm copperplate engraving, 54 x 40.5 cm sheet size, later hand colour, Antwerp, circa 1603) comes from the 1603 Latin edition of the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum of Abraham Ortelius (1527-1598), the first true atlas in the modern sense." The map shows a kite-shaped Japan introduced by Mercator -- the plate for the map was engraved in 1570, and it is interesting to compare it to the *Ortelius map of Japan engraved 25 years later* to see how rapidly European knowledge of the region expanded in the last quarter of the 16th century.