Sadanobu's small landscapes of Kyoto and Osaka were produced very much with the Edo artist Hiroshige in mind. Indeed, he also did miniature copies of some of Hiroshige's most famous designs.

Kyoto was the capital of Japan from 1180 to 1868, when the capital was moved to Tokyo (previously Edo) at the beginning of the Meiji Era in 1868. Sadanobu's woodblock prints of 'Famous Places in the Capital' was thus produced towards the very end of Kyoto's position as the Japanese capital, and possibly continued into the first year or two of the Meiji Period.