Edo-era Culture and the History of Ino Tadataka
Sawara, which prospered as a water transportation hub from the Edo period to the early Showa period, was a commercial town that flourished. Along the Onogawa River, which flows through the center of town, there are breweries and townhouses that produce soy sauce, sake, miso, and other fermented products. In the past, many goods and people were transported by boat and shipped to various parts of the Kanto region via the Tone River. Sawara, which has built a unique culture that rivals Edo, is still known as "Edo Masari" and was selected as the first "Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Historic Buildings" in the Kanto region in 1996. Sawara is also known as the town where Ino Tadataka, who made the first accurate map of Japan, was raised. Tadataka, who was adopted into the Ino family, which operated a brewery, worked hard for the prosperity of the family business and the town's administration. He began surveying maps at the age of 55 after devoting himself to learning from the age of 50. Tadataka then spent 17 years walking around Japan and surveying it, creating highly accurate maps.
