Showing Old Tokyo: Walks in the City of the Shogun by Sumiko Enbutsu

Four hundred years ago, Tokyo was a vast stretch of wilderness. The sea reached deep inland, its water almost lapping at the base of the Imperial Palace. The Ginza and Tsukiji were underwater, and Tokyo Station was in the middle of a marsh. To this desolate land came Tokugawa Ieyasu, a far-sighted samurai lord, who built a town there in 1590. He named it Edo, meaning "waterfront." Soon after Ieyasu's rise to the national leadership, this burgeoning town became the capital of Japan.

“This book is the result of decades of guided foot tours, now made easily accessible to anyone who can read English. For helping foreigners find their way around the inside of Tokyo, Enbutsu is my Number One.” — Ezra Vogel, author of Japan as Number One