Tsukiji, now famous as home to the world's biggest fish market, was reclaimed from the sea in the 17th century. Its transformation from seabed to seashore came after the magnificent first city of Edo, designed by Shogun Ieyasu in 1603 and completed around 1650, was destroyed by a fire in 1657. Then, with rebuilding going on everywhere, the Tokugawa Shogunate determined to expand the city on its eastern and southern margins, building bridges across the Sumida River and filling in sections of Edo Bay. Tsukiji, meaning "constructed land," was added south of Ginza in this process.

Much of the newly created land on the riversides and along the bay was allocated to daimyo lords for their villas and storehouses. Here, in a two-part 1830s woodcut print by Hasegawa Settan of Unemegahara, in what is now Ginza 5-chome in Chuo Ward, we can see an interesting contrast between bustling commoners' activities and the hushed silence of one of those large daimyo residences.

The horse track in the print was originally the site of a daimyo mansion that was razed in a fire in 1726. Soon after, a savvy townsman by the name of Chubee was given permission to open a rent-a-horse center on the vacant lot for the equestrian training of low-class samurai who could not afford their own mounts. Combined with refreshment and entertainment services, Chubee's business thrived, attracting crowds of people from all walks of life.