by Akira Naito (Kodansha International, Tokyo), $45.

Tokyo is so big, busy and businesslike, it’s hard to imagine that today’s booming capital began as a quiet village of people who eked out a living from the sea. Yet what we appreciate today and what we know about the roots of much of Japanese art rests on the foundation of Edo, the sleepy, seaside town that grew from 1603 to 1867 into Japan’s capital. A fascinating new book, translated from the Japanese, Edo, the City that Became Tokyo, an illustrated history by Akira Naito, focuses on how this flat wetland where the Sumidagawa River flows into what is now Tokyo Bay grew into a great metropolis.

What make the book so delightful, aside from the drama and complexity inherent to building a new city, are Kazuo Hozumi’s black-and-white illustrations. Describing the challenge of illustrating how the city grew, he writes about his approach of "synthesizing old pictures, screen paintings, and records into a new illustrative form." Hozumi based his work on the creators of the screen panoramas of Edo. His lively illustrations are crammed with activities, revealing just about every aspect of Edo daily life.

Each chapter--only a few pages with many illustrations--has a theme ranging from "Cutting Lumber in the Kiso Mountains" and "Houses of the Townspeople" to "Great Edo Traffic Jams" and "Evils of City Life." Collectors of Japanese art will value this compelling history of Tokyo because of its emphasis on the arts and the artisan districts, all revealed in detailed and often whimsical illustrations.

--Bobbie Leigh