All about Osaka's tourism treasures, history & chronology

Osaka remains one of the most popular tourist destinations in all of Japan. And this is especially true for tourists from Southeast Asia. In a way, Osaka and Fukuoka are the most southeast Asian cities in Japan both culturally and commercially. Osaka people are easy to talk too and have a great sense of humor. In fact, most of Japan's most famous comedians and crooners were born and raised in Osaka!

The image featured on this post is Osaka's mid-5th-century Daisen Kofun tumulus, which is viewed by archaeologists as the very roots of civilization in the Kansai region (Osaka, Nara, Kyoto, Kobe). There are several tumili like this "keyhole" grave site near the city of Sakai (home to the Shimano bike brand and some of Japan's best blacksmiths!). Learn more!

If you haven’t been to seen the night life areas of Osaka when the night is in full swing or just coming to an end in the wee hour of morning, then you’ve been missing a slice of life that is forever interesting and these days slowly fading away. Mizu shobai or the water business is a part of Japan that has been around for a very long time. A business of the night that flows high and low along with the economy and indeed is very much part of the larger economy, since so many decisions and deals are clinched between drinks and small talk in the semi-darkness of an expensive club. But in recent years the business has suffered badly under the double influence of the recession and the severe cutback in business expenses. And then too, because of younger generations of salarymen, who tend to spend more time with their families and less with the guys from the office. At one time you had nearly no choice as a salaryman but to go: it was literally a part of the job, as well as being a way of letting off steam before going home. These days the clubs are changing their ways and trying their best to stay in fashion with the business crowd, but it seems they’re fighting a losing battle that only a very few smart clubs will win in the end.

Osaka, like any other big city in Japan, has its fair share of mizu shobai areas. The best known are Kita Shinchi just south of Umeda and the Namba or Minami area, where things are cheaper and a lot more varied. The fact that Namba is cheaper probably has something to do with history of Osaka’s development after the war. In the late sixties and seventies with the increasing importance of Itami airport and the expansion of housing along Hankyu’s railway lines, the southern part of Osaka was lost in the swirl of progress and development that gave rise to Umeda and all its glitz. All the same the area around Dotonbori still has its original charm and a following of business people and nighttime revelers that makes Kita Shinchi look narrow and somehow ridiculous.

One particular area that continues to pull in the crowd is Soemoncho, a one-and-a-half-kilometer stretch running east west between Sakaisuji and Midosuji. What makes Soemoncho interesting is that it is dated — things looked older and less flashy, and day or night one gets the distinct feeling that the clientele who come here are more than likely the prosperous owners of the thousands of businesses that spill onto the streets of Shinsaibashi and Namba. If Kita Shinchi has a seventies and eighties feel, then Soemoncho is most definitely of the fifties and sixties when Japan’s economy was like a run away train on a downhill slope.

In Soemoncho you can find everything and anything and see anyone and everyone. There are nightclubs with big facades of neon and tuxedoed staff waiting to take your car and park it. Cabarets for the old fashioned (of which there are many!). For the pampered and well-heeled stomach, there is a Korean restaurant the size of a medium-sized warehouse, a German Edelweiss Bier Keller with a two-meter statue of a lion out front holding up a full beer stein. For the more elegant and sophisticated, there’s the Grill Robuba, with it’s glassed-in private garden, and long curving wooden counter and high-backed swivel stools covered in fresh linen. Here a polite but authoritative bar tender/waiter will serve drinks of your preference along with top quality steaks, as if you were a gentleman of note and property. And then there’s every manner and kind of high class Japanese joints, that the food loving people of Osaka are famed for from Hokkaido to Kyushu. There are also strip joints and the like, with their more suspicious and questionable attendants out front beside the glossy pictures trying to get you to come inside and see the action.

Where but Japan can you buy a silk tie at 1 am or a priceless pot of blooming orchids at 2 am? Soemoncho and the surrounding streets are spotted with tiny boutiques that sell expensive evening wear, lingerie, perfume and jewelry, neckties and belts, along with high-class fruit vendors. And for the distinguished older clientele there are shops selling selected antiques and kimono accessories. These shops cater to the sufficiently rich and usually slightly drunk customers who buy something for that special lady-friend on their arm or in appreciation for a mama-san’s (the proprietress of a bar or club) tactful way of making an evening with clients go very, very smoothly.

If you happen to find the doorways of Soemoncho too expensive or imposing, then all you have to do is cross the Dotonbori canal a few meters away and you’ve entered the poor man’s paradise of excitement and pleasure. Suddenly the colors are brighter and the restaurants smaller, no longer serving the best fish and meat on the market. Now it’s okonomiyaki, yakisoba and the like. But all the same it is always busy here at night and even in the daytime. A kind of consumer’s paradise that forever serves the idle masses in search of amusement.

And yet it’s not all fun and games. Just fifty meters off the Sennichimae shopping mall, you find yourself next to a small temple, incense clouds constantly billowing up and filling the surrounding air, and water flowing melodiously and constantly out of a natural spring. This temple is famous in Osaka and absolutely worth a visit. Hozenji dates back to 1597 and has been a popular place for women to wish for a healthy and successful childbirth. Tiny as the temple may be, there always seems to be someone there lighting incense or praying to the thick and wet moss-covered Amida Buddha statue, flanked by his two equally moss covered protectors and surrounded in a halo of purifying flames.

For something different, walk the streets around Soemoncho and Hozenji, and experience Japan’s circus of the night.

The rest of this post covers Osaka history from the 5th to the 17th century ending with a chronology of the city from 57 AD to 1997 AD. Learn more!

Content by Ian Martin Ropke, owner of Your Japan Private Tours (est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with Japan private tour clients and have worked for all kinds of families, companies, and individuals since 1990. Clients find me mostly via organic search, and I advertise my custom Japan private tours & travel services on www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps in Japan! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip. And thank you for reading my content. I, Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search), am also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!

A 5th-17th century historical perspective of Osaka

Osaka, Japan's first central capital, known as Naniwa, was established in the Osaka area in the fifth century. Since Japan only developed its own written language in the ninth century, very little actual documentation from this formative period of Japanese history exists, and details concerning Naniwa remain sketchy at best.

However, taking into account the area's geographical advantages--its sheltered seaside location, the abundance of fresh water from the numerous rivers flowing into the bay, and the immense expanse of arable land--it is easy to understand why the area was chosen as the location for Japan's first central capital.

What archeological evidence remains of the period is still largely undocumented. A great portion of it lies untouched within the giant burial mounds, such at the Nintoku Mausoleum in Sakai City. Some Western scholars have claimed that the reluctance of the Japanese to open these giant tombs, which would undoubtedly be full of well-preserved remains from that period, stems from a deeply inbred reluctance to accept the fact that the early Japanese civilization was, at the beginning, a direct offshoot of Korean and Chinese civilization.

Of what little remains from this ancient era, the foundation stones of Naniwa Castle, located slightly south of Osaka Castle, stand out. Widespread evidence of sericulture (silk production) from this period has also been documented in most of the coastal regions. Archeologists argue that this can be explained by the sudden, explosive increase in population during this period due to the arrival of large groups of continental peoples who were in possession of metal technology and advanced agricultural techniques. Fishing gear, ceramic caskets, and inkstones and evidence that immigrant workers were actively building canals, dikes, and ponds throughout the northern part of the prefecture have also been amply documented. The great number of burial mounds, smaller than the ones in Sakai, offer potent evidence of the existence of a ruling class with considerable economic power, advanced construction techniques, and organizational skills to unify and mobilize a massive labor pool.

From the sixth century on, Japan's successive capitals moved further and further inland: first to Asuka, southwest of Nara, then to Nara, Nagaoka-kyo, and finally north to Heian-kyo or Kyoto. Though no longer the capital, Osaka continued to play a primary role for the region as its key international port and trade center. In fact, at the time, there was only one other international port in the whole of Japan, in Kyushu. Trade and commerce with Japan through Osaka is amply documented in the historical annals of China and Korea from this time. In 733, the Japanese envoy to the Tang court in China left from Naniwa Harbor. The Tang-Dynasty priest Ganjin arrived at the port in Osaka from China and began teaching Buddhist precepts in 754. In 794, with the establishment of a new capital in Kyoto to the north, the Yodogawa River became a key transportation artery between the sea and the capital. Osaka also became a major land route hub with roads linking areas to the south, east, west, and north.

During the height of the Heian period, Osaka's Shitenno-ji Temple and Sumiyoshi Grand Shrine were highly popular pilgrimage routes for the court aristocracy. Seen from this perspective, Naniwa Harbor played a key role as a central window for the movement of culture. In this period, more Chinese and Korean specialists and scholars lived in the vicinity of Osaka, than in any other location. Place names and remains of their presence can be seen in all areas of the prefecture.

When the Heian court officially ceased sending envoys to China in the tenth century, the importance of Osaka's port in the national scheme waned. With the transfer of political power from the court to the warrior class, starting in the Kamakura period, and the subsequent establishment of a military capital at Kamakura (near present-day Tokyo) in 1185, Osaka went through a marked period of decay that lasted effectively until about the end of the 15th century. In particular, protracted warfare in the area during the 14th century between armies loyal to the northern and southern imperial courts virtually destroyed all major sites in the city.

Though Osaka and her port faded into obscurity for nearly 300 years, from the fifteenth century onwards the fortunes of Sakai City, located directly south of Osaka, began to rise. Because of its location near Osaka and its excellent port, Sakai was in a position to profit from an open trade route that circumvented hostile pirate activity and clan factions that controlled the hitherto key waterway of the Inland Sea. As a result, Sakai developed rapidly as a flourishing economic center through a steady increase in mercantile boat traffic and began actively importing culture and goods from outside of Japan from Ming-Dynasty China, the Ryukyu Islands near Taiwan, and other Southeast Asian centers. After Kyoto was virutally razed by the ravages of the Onin War, Sakai received a massive influx of merchants and aristocracy looking for a stable place to make a home. There are still many physical reminders of this period in the Sakai area.

The name Osaka (meaning "big slope") first came into use at the end of the 15th century at time when the entire country was subdivided into powerful, often warring fiefdoms, and increasingly powerful, even militant, religious centers. Battles of all kinds continued to rage in and around Kyoto for nearly 100 years. Such struggles for control and territory were not limited to competition between feudal lords and factions but also included organized raids by the warrior monks of the Tendai sect against the Pure Land and True Pure Land Buddhist sects, as well as fighting between the True Pure Land sect and the militant Nichiren sect. One of these conflicts resulted in the founding of True Pure Land sect's headquarters, the Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple, in Osaka in 1496.

More than just a temple, Ishiyama Hongan-ji (completed in 1532) quickly developed into a highly powerful temple town, raising Osaka's economic importance to heights reached in its earlier days of glory. By 1570, the temple, a veritable fortress, surrounded by moats and walls, had become so influential that it controlled entire provinces. The eight towns that developed in and around the temple precincts functioned as a major center for religion, commerce, and culture. Similar temple towns were established in the surrounding region in the sect's aggressive bid to establish large bases of influence throughout the countryside. In a sense, the temple served as the center for a religious monarchy similar to that of the Vatican and refused to be dictated to by any other power.

Oda Nobunaga, who, at the direct request of the emperor in 1562, was struggling to unite the country under central rule, found free cities, such as Sakai and Hirano, and the one around Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple difficult to conquer. For one thing, they were exceptionally well protected. They were also more than wealthy enough to influence their local lords to side with them. Fortified by a zealous sense of righteousness and spiritual fervor, the religious temple city of Ishiyama, ("rock mountain") was the most difficult to overcome.

Around the middle of the 16th century, Sakai's aggressive pursuit of foreign trade brought it to the attention of Portuguese traders, resulting in the full-scale importation of European firearms, an invention entirely unknown in Japan at that time. Oda Nobunaga was quick to understand the advantages of guns and tried to develop strong connections among the free cities' influential and extremely wealthy merchants. The city lost its free city status in 1569 when Oda Nobunaga took the city over in his bid to unite the country.

After conquering Sakai, Nobunaga turned his attentions to Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple, an on-and-off campaign that would last nearly 11 years. The fighting spirit and organization of the followers, and the virtually impregnable nature of the fortress, tested Nobunaga's genius for war to the limits. However, in 1580, the temple's head priest finally yielded to Nobunaga and agreed to retreat. Following his retreat, the temple was razed, leaving Nobunaga in control of the entire Osaka region. Though Nobunaga never had a chance to see his mission to completion, he was clearly aware of the strategic importance of Osaka as a possible headquarters for military rule. Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who succeeded Nobunaga in 1582 less than two weeks after he had been forced to commit ritual suicide in response to the treachery of one of his leading officers, chose the former site of Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple as the site for his magnificent base of power: Osaka Castle.

Osaka Castle was completed in the record time of two years (though various reconstructions would be undertaken over the ensuing 14 years) through the constant use of 30,000 laborers, with as many as 70,000 - 100,000 people employed during certain phases. At the height of the construction phase, a thousand shiploads of stone for the foundation ramparts and moat wall were arriving at the harbor every day. When it was finished, Osaka Castle ranked as the largest fortress in all of Southeast Asia, and its owner became the first man to successfully unify all of Japan under one power since the Heian period.

In addition to the construction of the castle, Hideyoshi saw to it that a new city was built, complete with a number of key canals and a series of moats around the castle. The canals were a practical necessity to get the unimaginable amount of building materials to the land-bound site of the castle, and an obvious solution to city development given the high number of rivers running through the area. Before long a city commensurate with the power of the castle developed south of the Yodogawa River, attracting leading merchant families from southern Kyoto, Sakai, and Hirano to set up business bases there.

More than just effecting peace and stability in Japan after nearly a hundred years of intercine warfare, Toyotomi Hideyoshi proved brilliant in a number of other ways. Most importantly, he vigorously supported an almost frenzied rebuilding of the capital, Kyoto, and instituted a code of strictly enforced laws governing nearly all aspects of society. Ironically, his social heirarchy left the merchant, the quintessential Osakan, at the bottom socially, but in other ways in control of the nation's lifeblood: the distribution of all essential resources.

To ensure his control, Toyotomi Hideyoshi nationalized the distribution of staple goods such that nearly everything was shipped to Osaka first and then from there to centers throughout the nation. Osaka's control of Japan's distribution system, strangely enough, remained unchanged even when Edo became the center of power. Hideyoshi also passed an edict banning Christians from Japanese shores, leading to the first of countless cruel killings in Nagasaki in 1597. Last but not least, Hideyoshi was the only warlord to appreciate the prospect and potential advantages of colonizing Korea and Ming China. Though his invasions in 1592 and 1597 failed overall, Hideyoshi was the last military ruler to have international ambitions until Japan actually did colonize Korea in the early twentieth century.

Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in 1598, leaving behind an enviable base of power (Osaka) with a population of nearly 300,000 and a five-year-old heir, Toyotomi Hideyori, to further glorify his name. Hideyori inheirited a peaceful nation, largely restored to its former prosperity and vitality, that looked to Osaka for direction and control. Unfortunately he was only a boy, and one of the five-member council entrusted to ensure Hideyori's succession was not content to let his former boss's son rule a united Japan; Tokugawa Ieyasu had other plans. In 1600, at the decisive Battle of Sekigahara, he roundly defeated a large army opposed to his ambitions and began setting up his own seat of power in Edo. Over the following years Ieyasu increasingly harassed and isolated Hideyori, waiting for the right moment to attack.

In the middle of November in 1614, 150,000 of Ieyasu's men attacked the castle, but found it impregnable. Instead, the army camped out and forced Hideyori to choose between starvation or capitulation. In the end, Hideyori agreed to fill in the moat and dismantle the castle walls. However, when Ieyasu sent someone to oversee the work, Hideyori protested and a second siege ensued. Ieyasu returned with an army of 200,000, and by June 1615 the castle was in flames. Hideyori and his mother Yodogimi died in the burning castle.

With the fall Osaka Castle and Tokugawa Ieyasu's consolidation of power over virtually all of Japan, Osaka was restored and developed by the shogunate government. For the Tokugawas, Osaka was not just a commercial center. With the new military capital nearly 500 kilometers away, Osaka Castle, with its nearly invincible location, was accorded as special role as the shogunate's key military center in central Japan. In 1629, under the third Tokugawa shogun, reconstruction of Osaka Castle was completed. Until the fall of the Tokugawa shogunate in 1867, all subsequent lords of the castle were hereditary lords directly related to the Tokugawas. In addition to governing the fiefs east and west of Osaka and Sakai, the lord of Osaka was responsible for keeping an eye on another 30 lords in the region.

A detailed chronology of Osaka or Naniwa from 57 AD to 1997

57 The first Japanese envoys arrive at the Chinese court.

552 Buddhism enters Japan from mainland China.

593 Prince Regent Shotoku Taishi founds Shitenno-ji Temple.

607 Prince Regent Shotoku Taishi dispatches Japan’s first major delegation to the Chinese mainland.

652 Naniwa Castle at Naniwa (Osaka) completed after eight years of construction.

710 The capital is moved to Nara.

784 Newly crowned Emperor Kammu leaves Nara and establishes his capital at Nagaoka-kyo.

794 The capital is moved from Nagaoka-kyo to Heian-kyo (Kyoto).

872 Kanshin-ji Temple is completed.

1331 Kusunoki Masashige victorious in the battle at Akasaka Castle in the Kawachi region.

1334 Kusunoki Masashige is made lord of Settsu, Kawachi, and Izumi (the Osaka region).

1561 The 300th anniversary of the monk Shinran is held at Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple.

1580 Ishiyama Hongan-ji Temple burned down, after the temple loses its battle with Oda Nobunaga: 2,000 temples in the region are destroyed.

1583 Toyotomi Hideyoshi enters Osaka and begins construction of Osaka Castle.

1598 Toyotomi Hideyoshi dies.

1600 Tokugawa Ieyasu victorious in Battle of Sekigahara, and the Tokugawa shogunate begins.

1614 Osaka Winter Battle.

1615 Osaka Summer Battle. Osaka Castle falls. Toyotomi Hideyori and Yodogimi commit suicide.

1649 Yamato River floods.

1666 Osaka Cotton Textile Union is established.

1703 Chikamatsu Monzaemon's love tragedy Sonezaki Shinju plays in Osaka for the first time. The Osaka Horie Shinchi and Sonezaki Shinchi pleasure quarters are developed (Kita-Shinchi, just south of the Umeda commercial district, is still the center of Osaka's business & government elite nightlife).

1724 Two-thirds of Osaka is destroyed in a major fire.

1726 The Kaitokudo school is established in Amagasaki by Miyake Sekian.

1800 Silver-trading quarters in Kyoto and Osaka are closed by the shogunate.

1833 Rice riots in Osaka and other major centers in Japan.

1854 Osaka is hit by a major earthquake.

1868 Sakai Incident takes place, in which a French soldier is murdered.

1872 Osaka Courthouse is completed.

1874 Japan National Railways link between Osaka and Kobe opens. Osaka Prefectural Hall opens.

1876 National railway link between Osaka and Kyoto opens.

1888 Sakai Railway link between Namba and Sakai opens.

1889 Osaka City is formed.

1904 Osaka Prefectural Library opens.

1905 Hanshin Railway link between Osaka and Kobe opens.

1910 Mino-Arima Railway links between Umeda and Takarazuka, and Ishibashi and Mino open. Keihan Railway link between Osaka and Kyoto opens.

1912 The Shin Sekai amusement quarter opens, centered around Tsutenkaku Tower.

1915 Osaka Zoo opens. Japan's first National School Baseball Tournament is held in Toyonaka Baseball Stadium.

1921 Osaka City Hall moves to Nakanoshima. Osaka Municipal Public Hall opens.

1925 Osaka Grand Memorial Exposition is held. Osaka's first radio station starts broadcasting.

1929 Hankyu Department Store opens. Osaka Castle Park opens.

1933 Osaka's first subway, between Umeda and Shinsaibashi, opens.

1934 Typhoon Muroto hits Osaka, resulting in major damage.

1939 Osaka International Airport (or Itami Airport) opens.

1944 First American bombers reach Osaka.

1945 Osaka is bombed, mostly with fire bombs, seven times by American B-29s, resulting in the virtual destruction of the city center. American troops enter the city on September 27.

1949 Tenjin Festival is revived. Osaka Police Department is reestablished.

1954 NHK Osaka starts television broadcasting. First Japan Trade Fair is held in Osaka.

1955 Bunraku puppet theater is designated an Important Cultural Treasure.

1956 Tsutenkaku Tower reopens in the Shin Sekai amusement park.

1958 Imazato Shinchi and Tobita Shinchi pleasure quarters are shut down.

1961 Japan National Railways Osaka Loop Line opens.

1962 Senri New Town opens.

1964 Bullet train link between Osaka and Tokyo opens.

1966 Kamagasaki district is renamed Airin.

1967 Meijinomori in Minoo City is designated as a national park.

1968 An Osakan, Kawabata Yasunari, wins Japan's first Nobel Prize, for literature, the first Japanese writer to gain this distinction. His novels Snow Country, Thousand Cranes, and The Old Capital are all masterworks of his generation. Easy to read but subtle in meaning.

1969 Except for one line, all Osaka streetcar routes are closed. Umeda Hankyu Sanbangai underground shopping area opens.

1970 Expo 70, the first World Expo to be held in Japan and in Asia, takes place in Osaka (Expo 2025 is the city's second expo event)

1976 Ruins of Naniwa Palace are excavated.

1978 Namba City underground shopping area opens.

1982 Osaka Museum of Oriental Ceramics opens.

1983 Osaka Castle Exposition and Osaka's first Midosuji (civic) Parade are held.

1984 Osaka's National Bunraku Theater is built as the home of Japanese Bunraku theater.

1986 Osaka Business Park and Osaka International Community Center open.

1987 Reclamation for Kansai International Airport begins in Osaka Bay.

1990 Osaka Flower and Greenery Expo is held. Tempozan Harbor Village and Osaka Aquarium open.

1991 Osaka International Peace Center opens.

1994 Asia and Pacific Trade Center opens. Kansai International Airport opens on a huge manmade island south of Sakai City, to relieve overcrowding at Osaka International Airport, also called Itami Airport, which is closer to Osaka.

1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake leaves 5,000 dead in Kobe. World Trade Center Osaka opens. APEC summit held in Osaka.

1997 JR Tozai subway line opens.

Content by Japan travel specialist & designer Ian Martin Ropke, founder & owner of Your Japan Private Tours (YJPT, est. 1990). I have been planning, designing, and making custom Japan private tours on all five Japanese islands since the early 1990s. I work closely with all of YJPT's Japan private tour clients and have a great team behind me. I promote YJPT through this content and only advertise at www.japan-guide.com, which has the best all-Japan English content & maps! If you are going to Japan and you understand the advantages of private travel, consider my services for your next trip to save time & have a better time. Ian Martin Ropke (unique on Google Search) is also a serious nonfiction and fiction writer, a startup founder (NexussPlus.com), and a spiritual wood sculptor. Learn more!