The Sengaikyo“山海経” is considered to be China’s oldest work of speculative geography (a geographical treatise), believed to have been compiled during the period spanning the Warring States period through to the Qin and Han dynasties (approximately the 4th to 3rd centuries BC). It records not only actual geographical information but also numerous myths, supernatural beings, strange beasts and people of unusual appearance, and is often referred to as the ancient Chinese equivalent of a ‘monster encyclopaedia’.

In Japan, too, it has been published on several occasions since 1670, based on the Chinese original. This particular volume is thought to have been published sometime between the late Edo period and the early Meiji period.