First Day In Osaka [Osaka Part. 1] (Travels in Japan Pt. 25)

Shinkansen ride and clips from first day of my trip to Osaka. Enjoy!

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Osaka is a large port city and commercial center on the Japanese island of Honshu. It’s known for its modern architecture, nightlife and hearty street food. The 16th-century shogunate Osaka Castle, which has undergone several restorations, is its main historical landmark. It’s surrounded by a moat and park with plum, peach and cherry-blossom trees. Sumiyoshi-taisha is among Japan’s oldest Shinto shrines.

Osaka (Japanese: 大阪市 Hepburn: Ōsaka-shi, pronounced [oːsakaɕi]; commonly just 大阪, Ōsaka [oːsaka] (About this soundlisten)) is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. It is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Japan and among the largest in the world with over 19 million inhabitants.

Osaka was traditionally considered Japan’s economic hub. By the Kofun period (300–538) it had developed into an important regional port, and in the 7th and 8th centuries it served briefly as the imperial capital. Osaka continued to flourish during the Edo period (1603–1867) and became known as a center of Japanese culture. Following the Meiji Restoration, Osaka greatly expanded in size and underwent rapid industrialization. In 1889, Osaka was officially established as a municipality.

Today’s Osaka is a major financial center of Japan. It is home to the Osaka Securities Exchange and the multinational electronics corporation Panasonic. Landmarks in Osaka include Osaka Castle and Shitennō-ji.

Ōsaka means “large hill” or “large slope”. It is unclear when this name gained prominence over Naniwa, but the oldest written evidence for the name dates back to 1496.[3][4][citation needed]

The name is written 大阪 in kanji, but it was written 大坂 until 1870, when the partisans for the Meiji Restoration changed it, apparently to avoid the second kanji being misinterpreted as 士反, meaning “samurai rebellion”. The older kanji is still in very limited use, usually in historical contexts, but in Japanese the kanji 阪—pronounced han when standing alone—refers to Osaka City or Osaka Prefecture.

History
See also: Timeline of Osaka
Prehistory to the Kofun period
Some of the earliest signs of human habitation in the Osaka area at the Morinomiya ruins (森ノ宮遺跡 Morinomiya iseki) comprise shell mounds, sea oysters and buried human skeletons from the 6th–5th centuries BC. It is believed[by whom?] that what is today the Uehonmachi area consisted of a peninsular land with an inland sea in the east. During the Yayoi period, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular.[5]

By the Kofun period, Osaka developed into a hub port connecting the region to the western part of Japan. The large numbers of increasingly larger tomb mounds found in the plains of Osaka are seen as evidence of political-power concentration, leading to the formation of a state.[5][6]

Asuka and Nara period
The Kojiki records that during 390–430 AD there was an imperial palace located at Osumi, in what is present day Higashiyodogawa ward, but it may have been a secondary imperial residence rather than a capital.[7]

In 645, Emperor Kōtoku built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace in what is now Osaka,[8] making it the capital of Japan. The city now known as Osaka was at this time referred to as Naniwa, and this name and derivations of it are still in use for districts in central Osaka such as Naniwa (浪速) and Namba (難波).[9] Although the capital was moved to Asuka (in Nara Prefecture today) in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato (modern day Nara Prefecture), Korea, and China.[5][10]

Naniwa was declared the capital again in 744 by order of Emperor Shōmu, and remained so until 745, when the Imperial Court moved back to Heijō-kyō (now Nara). By the end of the Nara period, Naniwa’s seaport roles had been gradually taken over by neighboring areas, but it remained a lively center of river, channel, and land transportation between Heian-kyō (Kyoto today) and other destinations.

Heian to Edo period

Osaka castle
In 1496, Jōdo Shinshū Buddhists established their headquarters in the heavily fortified Ishiyama Hongan-ji, located directly on the site of the old Naniwa Imperial Palace. Oda Nobunaga began a decade-long siege campaign on the temple in 1570 which ultimately resulted in the surrender of the monks and subsequent razing of the temple. Toyotomi Hideyoshi constructed Osaka Castle in its place in 1583.[11]

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