Inō Tadataka was born in Kazusa Province in 1745. He was adopted as the heir of the Inō family in the city of Sawara. He managed the family brewery until he was fifty. After he retired he began to study astronomy, geography and mathematics and began drawing maps. Between 1800 and 1816 he spent 3,736 days taking measurements and mapping Japan. His maps are accurate to about a thousandth of a degree.

Tadataka's maps were not completed during his lifetime. In 1821 the Dai Nihon enkai yochi zenzu, an atlas of Japan based on his surveys was completed. The atlas contained 214 sheets on a scale of 1:36,000, 8 sheets on a scale of 1:216,000 and 3 sheets on a scale of 1:432,000.

Though Inō's maps were not in use during the Edo period, they were made the standard maps of the country in the Meiji era. Maps published by the British Navy in the 1860's were based on Inō's maps, and maps based on Inō's were used as late as 1924 by the Japanese military.