Antique city plan of Jedo, Tokyo, 1749

The Plan of Jedo, created in 1749 by renowned French cartographer Jacques Nicolas Bellin, is one of the earliest known Western maps of Edo—modern-day Tokyo, Japan. Commissioned by the French Navy’s Dépot des Cartes et Plans de la Marine, where Bellin served as chief hydrographer, the map was part of a broader European effort to document the geography of distant and relatively inaccessible parts of the world during the Age of Enlightenment.

Bellin’s map is based on earlier Japanese sources, possibly obtained through Dutch traders at Dejima, Japan’s only European contact during its period of enforced isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate. The map provides a detailed plan of Edo, then one of the world’s largest and most populous cities, and the political heart of Japan. At the center is the massive Edo Castle, seat of the shogunate, surrounded by a complex network of moats, bridges, and districts laid out in a highly organized, hierarchical structure.

The map identifies various wards, temples, and key roads, revealing the city’s meticulous urban planning. Though not geographically precise by modern standards, Bellin's depiction captures the symbolic and functional layout of Edo, illustrating zones for samurai, merchants, artisans, and commoners, as well as waterways that were vital to transportation and commerce.

Aesthetically, the map features a decorative cartouche with the title in French—“Plan de la Ville de Jedo Capitale du Japon”—and may include annotations on Edo’s size, population, and cultural significance. It reflects Enlightenment-era Europe’s growing curiosity about foreign civilizations, especially those shrouded in mystery like Japan.

Bellin’s Plan of Jedo stands as a significant historical artifact, not only for its cartographic detail but also as a testament to the cross-cultural exchanges, however limited, that shaped Western understanding of East Asia in the 18th century.

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