地図Bは南北を上下ではなく、左右に置いて、作ったものである > B (source, line 11) I understand the sentence as follows: > Concerning map B, it is the card he made north and south not being top and bottom and put it left and right. My main issue so far is that has no connector to it like form. The fact that is form doesn't make things easier. I could imagine that ... form one attribute for . could be, well, another addition, an adverbial phrase maybe, I struggle determining the syntactical function. "He made north and south not being top and bottom and put it left and right" I also have problems with the semantics of form in this context. simply chaining it kind of still works, but I feel like it should have an adversative meaning: > He made north and south not being top and bottom, but put it left and right. But I haven't learned so far that form would be allowed to use this meaning.

Your instinct is not wrong. is equivalent to . This is a general rule: the form of an adjective (and in this case, as in most cases, and forms of verbs are treated as adjectives) is used (more often in written than in spoken Japanese) as equivalent to the form. The pattern A [] B , "not A but B", can often be rendered "B rather than A".

The sentence goes like this:

B Map B

is something that [unspecified subject] made

placing

North and South

not [at] top and bottom [but] to left and right

Since the subject is unspecified, I would use an English passive when translating. Thus:

Map B has been drawn with North and South to left and right rather than at top and bottom.

Hint: don't be misled by the punctuation mark . It doesn't always (or even often, I'd say) mark off a grammatically distinct section of a sentence.