Emperor Nintoku Visits His Palace in the City of Naniwa (Nintoku tennō Naniwa-to gosho e miyuki no zu)

This 1868 Museum of Fine Arts Boston historical-narrative print by Hasegawa Sadanobu I depicts the legendary Emperor Nintoku — the fifth-century sovereign celebrated in Japanese chronicles for his concern for his people's welfare — visiting his palace in Naniwa, the ancient name for what is now Osaka. The print is dated to 1868, the inaugural year of the Meiji Restoration, when newly Meiji-era publishers and designers were drawing on Japan's ancient imperial past to legitimize the restoration of imperial authority that had displaced the Tokugawa shogunate. Sadanobu's choice of Naniwa-located imperial history reflects both his own Osaka identity and the broader Meiji-era interest in reframing Osaka as a place of imperial dignity rather than mere mercantile activity. The composition's historicizing treatment — court costume, ceremonial procession, formal palace setting — represents Sadanobu's range beyond his more characteristic actor and landscape work and demonstrates his adaptability to the new political conditions of the Meiji period. The MFA's holding preserves an important documentary print of the early Meiji moment.