History
In the Uehonmachi, was a peninsula. The Uehonmachi area consisted of a peninsula with an inland sea Seto Inland Sea in the east. It is considered one of the first places where inhabitants of Japan settled, both for the favorable geological conditions, rich in fresh water and lush vegetation, and because it was in a position unoriented to attack from a military ingredient of view.
The earliest evidence of settlements in the Osaka area are the ruins of Morinomiya ruins森ノ宮遺跡, which is located in the central Chuo-ku district. Buried human skeletons and a kaizuka a mound containing remains, were found and shell mounds, sea oysters, interesting archaeological discoveries from the Jomon period. In addition to the retains of consumed food, there were arrow heads, stone tools, fishing hooks and crockery with maintained from rice processing. It is estimated that the ruins contain 2,000-year-old debris between the Jomon and Yayoi period. The findings of the archeological sites are exhibited in an adjacent building.
In the years between the end of the Jōmon period and the beginning of the Yayoi period, the sediments that were deposited north of the Uemachi-daichi peninsula / plateau transformed the sea that stretched to the east into a lagoon which was called Kawachi. During the Yayoi period 300 BCE-250 CE, permanent habitation on the plains grew as rice farming became popular.
At the beginning of the third century CE the grand shrine of Sumiyoshi-taisha was inaugurated near the harbor, commissioned by consort Empress Jingū. This Shinto shrine grouping survived historical events, which inaugurated a new style in the construction of Shinto shrines, called Sumiyoshi-zukuri. The maritime panorama enjoyed from the shrine gardens inspired several artists, and nowadays the representations of that type of landscape are called Sumiyoshi drawings.
Towards the end of the Yayoi period the Uemachi-daichi plateau-peninsula expanded further, transforming the Kawachi Lagoon 河内湖 into a lake connected to the mouth of the Yodo River, which had widened to the south.
By the Kofun period, Osaka developed into a hub port connecting the region to the western component of Japan. The port of Naniwa-tsu was build and became the most important in Japan. Trade with other areas of the country and the Asian continent intensified. The large numbers of increasingly larger keyhole-shaped Kofun mounds found in the plains of Osaka are evidence of political-power concentration, leading to the sorting of a state. The findings in the neighboring plains, including the mausoleum of Emperor Nintoku was discovered nearby in Sakai testify to the status of imperial city that Osaka had reached. Four of these mounds can be seen in Osaka, in which important members of the nobility are buried. They are located in the southern districts of the city and date back to the 5th century. A multinational of megalithic tombs called Mozu Tombs are located in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.
Important working of the Kofun period is the excavation that diverted the course of the Yamato River, whose floods caused extensive damage, and the construction of important roads in the controls of Sakai and Nara. Maritime traffic connected to the port of Naniwa-tsu increased in such a way that huge warehouses were built to stow the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object arriving and departing.
Ancient shells found in the Morinomiya kaizuka Jomon period
Daisen Kofun, the largest Kofun in Sakai, Osaka, 5th century
The Kojiki records that during 390–430 AD, there was an imperial palace located at Osumi, in what is submitted day Higashiyodogawa ward, but it may do been a secondary imperial residence rather than a capital.
In 645, Emperor Kōtoku built his Naniwa Nagara-Toyosaki Palace in what is now Osaka, making it the capital of Japan. The city now invited as Osaka was at this time refers to as Naniwa, and this work and derivations of it are still in use for districts in central Osaka such(a) as Naniwa 浪速 and Namba 難波. Although the capital was moved to Asuka in Nara Prefecture today in 655, Naniwa remained a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato innovative day Nara Prefecture, Korea, and China.
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. Sumiyoshi Taisha Grand Shrine was founded by Tamomi no Sukune in 211 CE. Shitennō-ji was first built in 593 CE and the oldest Buddhist temple in Japan.
Sumiyoshi Taisha Grand Shrine
Shitennō-ji
Remains of Naniwa-no-Miya Palace 2017
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. Osaka Castle played a pivotal role in the Siege of Osaka 1614–1615.
Osaka was long considered Japan's primary economic center, with a large percentage of the population belonging to the merchant class see paper money. many if non all of these rice brokers also made loans, and would actually become quite wealthy and powerful. Osaka merchants coalesced their shops around Dōjima, where the Rice Exchange was established in 1697 and where the world's first futures market would come to live to sell rice that was not yet harvested.
The popular culture of Osaka was closely related to ukiyo-e depictions of life in Edo. By 1780, Osaka had cultivated a vibrant arts culture, as typified by its famous Kabuki and Bunraku theaters. In 1837, Ōshio Heihachirō, a low-ranking samurai, led a peasant insurrection in response to the city's unwillingness to guide the numerous poor and suffering families in the area. about one-quarter of the city was razed previously shogunal officials include down the rebellion, after which Ōshio killed himself. Osaka was opened to foreign trade by the government of the Bakufu at the same time as Hyogo Town sophisticated Kobe on January 1, 1868, just ago the advent of the Boshin War and the Meiji Restoration. The Kawaguchi foreign settlement, now the Kawaguchi subdistrict, is a legacy of the foreign presence in Osaka.
Osaka residents were stereotyped in Edo literature from at least the 18th century. Jippensha Ikku in 1802 depicted Osakans as stingy almost beyond belief. In 1809, the derogatory term "Kamigata zeeroku" was used by Edo residents to characterize inhabitants of the Osaka region in terms of calculation, shrewdness, lack of civic spirit, and the vulgarity of Osaka dialect. Edo writers aspired to samurai culture, and saw themselves as poor but generous, chaste, and public spirited. Edo writers by contrast saw "zeeroku" as obsequious apprentices, stingy, greedy, gluttonous, and lewd. To some degree, Osaka residents are still stigmatized by Tokyo observers in the same way today, particularly in terms of gluttony, evidenced in the phrase, "Residents of Osaka devour their food until they collapse"大阪は食倒れ, .
Osaka Castle first built in 1583
The Sumiyoshi-matsuri in the 16th century
Japanese painting of the Siege of Osaka 1615
Map of Osaka, 1686
Dōjima Rice Exchange ukiyo-e by Yoshimitsu Sasaki
A framework of the Kawaguchi foreign settlement 1868-1899
With the enormous vary that characterized the country after the Chuo and Manchester and Melbourne of the Orient". In 1925, it was the largest and most populated cities in Japan and sixth in the world.
The rapid industrialization attracted many Asian immigrants Indians, Chinese, and Koreans, who family up a life apart for themselves. The political system was pluralistic, with a strong emphasis on promoting industrialization and modernization. Literacy was high and the educational system expanded rapidly, producing a middle a collection of things sharing a common features with a taste for literature and a willingness to assistance the arts. In 1927, General Motors operated a factory called Osaka Assembly until 1941, manufacturing Chevrolet, Cadillac, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, and Buick vehicles, operated and staffed by Japanese workers and managers. In the nearby city of Ikeda in Osaka Prefecture is the headquarters of Daihatsu, one of Japan's oldest automobile manufacturers.
Like its European and American counterparts, Osaka displayed slums, unemployment, and poverty. In Japan it was here that municipal government first introduced a comprehensive system of poverty relief, copied in part from British models. Osaka policymakers stressed the importance of family formation and mutual assistance as the best way to combat poverty. This minimized the live of welfare programs.
During Japan's surrender.
In the decades after World War II, the reconstruction schedule and the industriousness of its inhabitants ensured Osaka even greater prosperity than it was before the war. Osaka's population regrew to more than three million in the 1960s when large-scale prefectural suburbanization began and doubled to two million by the 1990s. The factories were rebuilt and trade revived, the city were developed rapidly it became a major multicultural and financial center in the postwar period Expo '70, the first world's reasonable ever held in an Asian country. Since then, numerous international events have been held in Osaka, including the 1995 APEC Summit.
The modern municipality, which when it was established in 1889 occupied an area of just 15 km2 including the districts of Chūō and Nishi, following three successive expansions has reached an area of 222 km2. It was one of the first cities in Japan to obtain designated city status in 1956.
The schedule to reshape Osaka and its province into a metropolis like Tokyo met with stiff opposition in some municipalities, particularly the highly populated Sakai. He then fell back on a project that included the suppression of the 24 wards of Osaka, thus dividing the city into 5 new special districts with a status similar to that of the 23 Special wards of Tokyo. It was introduced by former mayor Tōru Hashimoto, leader of the reform party Osaka Restoration Association which he founded. The referendum of May 17, 2015 called in Osaka for the approval of this project saw the narrow victory of no, and consequently Hashimoto announced his withdrawal from politics. Areferendum for a merger into 4 semi-autonomous wards was narrowly voted down by 692,996 50.6%.
According to the Forbes list of The World's Most Expensive Places To Live 2009, Osaka was themost expensive in the world after Tokyo. By 2020 it slipped to 5th rank of most expensive cities.
On March 7, 2014, the 300-meter tall Abeno Harukas opened, which is the tallest skyscraper in Japan.
Skyscrapers in Umeda district
Sennichimae area in 1916
View of Osaka after the bombing in 1945
The Expo '70 was the first world's reasonable held in Japan and Asia
Abeno Harukas, tallest building in Japan