About This Print

This print was issued on March 10, 1890, ten months before the opening of the First Imperial Diet Building on November 24, 1890.  The artist has rendered an event, the visit of Emperor Meiji, that would not occur until later that year and has depicted, at least part of the building, as red brick.  In fact, the final design, hastily conceived as a "temporary" home for the Diet, was clad in gray-painted German clapboards and not in brick.   For a more accurate depiction of the First Diet Building see the print Illustration of the [Emperor at the] National Diet Building by Watanabe Nobukazu (c.1872-1944) which does show the exterior grey clapboard.  For a print depicting the Second National Diet building, which was a much more substantial building, see Watanabe Nobukazu's Illustration of Emperor's Triumphal Return to Reconstructed Diet Building at Hibiya.