Transcribed in 1748, this work is based on information gained by Hakuseki (1657-1725) from his interrogation of the Italian missionary Sidotti, who arrived in Japan in 1708 in defiance of the Tokugawa prohibition.
　　The work is said to have been written some days before the death of the author. Not officially published until 1881, it was circulated until then in manuscript form. It is highly valued as the first organized world geography by a Japanese, and also as "a model for future world geographies, in the rigorous stance of the author in attempting critical inquiry using many sources such as Matteo Ricci's Kon'yo bankoku zen-zusetsu, Dutch world maps etc., stating clearly which points are uncertain."