During the Edo era (1603 - 1868), a large amount of various goods had been transported from Osaka to Edo (present Tokyo) by sail ships, among which a competent and famous one was called Higaki Kaisen (Higaki is a diamond-shaped lattice decorated on the ship’s side above the water line). In the 17th century, the size of ships was not large but it gradually increased and culminated in the 19th century as authentic business sail ships, original in Japan.

Osaka City had built Naniwa-Maru (Naniwa is the old name of Osaka) in 1999 as restoration of a real-size Higaki Kaisen and displayed it in the Osaka Marine Museum. For three weeks just before installation in the Museum, the real-sea operation of Naniwa-Maru had been conducted to see its performance and to measure various data as a real-sea experiment by the research group led by the late Professor Emeritus Kensaku Nomoto of Osaka University.