This work is a reprint of a cadastral map, originally produced around 1630–31, showing land ownership in central Edo (Tokyo). The original map is considered the oldest and most accurate extant plan of the city, and multiple reproductions of it were made until the end of the Edo period (1603–1868). The map has several defining features, one of which is that all text labels read in the same direction, in the style of modern maps. It also includes pictorial representations of significant areas such as Edo Castle, the reservoir, and major temples and shrines. The map is oriented with north toward the upper right. The box on the lower left is a chart indicating distances. Vertical distance is disproportionately greater than horizontal distance, which results in the exclusion of areas north of Edo Castle from the map. Only the residential quarters of the samurai and local townspeople in the immediate vicinity of the castle are shown. Edo Castle was built in the mid-15th century and a town started to form around it. Tokugawa Ieyasu (1543–1616), founder of the Tokugawa shogunate, and his successors restored the castle and developed the city of Edo.