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History;
Osaka:
The Merchants' Capital of Early Modern Japan by James L.
McClain
Second
Metropolis : Pragmatic Pluralism in Gilded Age Chicago, Silver Age
Moscow, and Meiji Osaka (Woodrow Wilson Center Press) by Blair
A. Ruble
The
City As Subject: Seki Hajime and the Reinvention of Modern Osaka
(Twentieth-Century Japan) by Jeffrey E. Hanes
Visions
of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokudo Merchant Academy of
Osaka by Tetsuo Najita
Osaka
Prints by Dean Schwaab
Visions
of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokudo Merchant Academy of
Osaka by Tetsuo Najita
Historical
Dictionary of Osaka and Kyoto by Ian Martin Ropke
Visions
of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokudo Merchant Academy of
Osaka by Tetsuo Najita
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Osaka Castle [Osakajo]
Osaka (Hepburn: Osaka, Japanese: ??), is the third-largest city in Japan, with a population of 2.7 million. It is located on the island of Honshu, at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay. The city is one of Japan's major industrial centers and ports, as well as the capital of Osaka prefecture.
It is a central part to the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto metropolitan area.
In the Nippon-shiki and Kunrei romanization systems, the city's name is Ôsaka, and in JSL, it is Oosaka. Alternate Hepburn methods also point to the last two mentioned alternate spellings.
Table of contents showTocToggle("show","hide")
1 History
2 Attractions
3 Transportation
4 Geography
5 Demography
6 Economy
7 External links
History
Osaka city was named originally Naniwa. In this name this area appears in
early Japanese historical documents. It is a connection by land and sea,
from Yamato area (today Nara prefecture) beyond the Western Japan
to Korea and China.
An ancient emperor Shomu settled
his capital, named Naniwa-no-miya (The Capital of Naniwa) and made his palace
and a big port. Also a guesthouse for foreign agents was built there.
The name Settsu has also been used, but this is in fact a former province of Japan, consisting of the northern part of modern Osaka prefecture and the seaside part of Hyogo prefecture.
In 1496 the Jodo Shinshu Buddhist sect set up their headquarters, the heavily fortified Ishiyama Honganji temple, in Ishiyama, today a part of Osaka. In 1576, Oda Nobunaga started a siege of the temple that went on to last for four years. The monks finally surrendered in 1580, the temple was razed and Toyotomi Hideyoshi took the place for
his own castle, Osaka Castle.
Osaka was called Ozaka (??) from the middle age until the premodern period. In the beginning of Meiji Era the government renamed the city to Osaka, which remains its name today. In those days Osaka was the second largest city of Japan and economically the most important, because most of the important markets, rice, exchange and so on
were there.
The recent city was designated on September 1, 1956 by government ordinance.
Attractions
Tennoji district of Osaka
Central Osaka is divided into two sections: Kita (north) and Minami (south). The retail district of Umeda is located in Kita, while the entertainment area around Dotonbori Bridge (with its famous enormous motorised crab), Triangle Park and Amerikamura ("America Village") is in Minami. Minami is also home to the Shinsaibashi and Tenjinbashi shopping districts. The central business district, including the courts and major banks, is primarily located in Yodoyabashi and Hommachi, between Kita and Minami. Business districts have also formed around the city's secondary rail terminii, such as Tennoji Station and Kyobashi Station.
Osaka is known for bunraku (a type of puppetry) and kabuki theatre. Tourist attractions include:
- Osakajo (Osaka Castle),
- Kaiyukan - an enormous walk-through aquarium located in Osaka Bay, containing 35,000 aquatic animals in 14 tanks, the largest of which holds 5,400 tonnes of water and houses whale-sharks,
- the Shinsekai district and Osaka Tower,
- numerous amusement parks including Universal Studios Japan, Expoland, and Festival Gate, and,
- for the sanitary-minded, the "Toilets of the
World" exhibit in the International Finance Center in
Osakajo-koen.
- Osaka City Museum
- The Museum of Oriental Ceramics
- Sumiyoshi Park
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Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan
Osaka regional cuisine includes okonomiyaki (a type of pancake), takoyaki (octopus dumplings), udon (a noodle dish), as well as regional sushi and other traditional Japanese foods.
Transportation
Kansai International Airport is the main airport: it is a man-made rectangular island which sits off-shore in Osaka Bay and services Osaka and its surrounding satellite cities of Nara, Kobe and Kyoto. Kansai is the geographical term for the area of western Honshu surrounding Osaka. The airport is linked by a bus and train service into the centre of the city and major suburbs.
Osaka International Airport in Itami and Toyonaka still houses most of the domestic service from the metropolitan region: its proximity to the Osaka, Kobe, and Kyoto city centers outweighs its noise restrictions.
The mass transportation system of Osaka is first-rate: Besides the subway system there is a network of both government (JR) and private lines connecting the suburbs of the city, and Osaka to its neighbours. Keihan and Hankyu line connect to Kyoto, Hanshin and Hankyu line connect to Kobe, the Kintetsu line connects to Nara and Nagoya, and the Nankai line to Wakayama.
The city was founded on April 1, 1889.
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Osaka Tower [Tsutenkaku]
Geography
Osaka has following wards: Abeno-ku, Asahi-ku, Chuo-ku, Fukushima-ku, Higashinari-ku, Higashisumiyoshi-ku, Higashiyodogawa-ku, Hirano-ku, Ikuno-ku, Joto-ku, Kita-ku, Konohana-ku, Minato-ku, Miyakojima-ku, Naniwa-ku, Nishi-ku, Nishinari-ku, Nishiyodogawa-ku, Suminoe-ku, Sumiyoshi-ku, Taisho-ku, Tennoji-ku, Tsurumi-ku and Yodogawa-ku.
Demography
As of 2003, the city has an estimated population of 2,624,129 and the density of 11,857.79 persons per km˛. The total area is 221.30 km˛.
The people of Osaka speak a variation of standard Japanese called Osaka-ben, characterised by, most prominently amongst other particularities, the use of the suffix hen instead of nai in the negative of verbs.
Osaka people are considered by other Japanese to be rowdy and boisterous with a robust and coarse sense of humour, befitting people engaged in the commercial life of the region.
Economy
Historically, Osaka was the center of Japanese commerce, especially in the middle and premodern ages. Nowadays, most major companies have moved their main offices to Tokyo, especially from the end of 1990s, but several major companies are still based in Osaka, including Daimaru, Hankyu, Hanshin, Sharp Electronics, and the West Japan Railway Company.
In additon, Matsushita (Panasonic) is based in nearby Kadoma.
External links
This article is adapted from from Wikipedia All Wikipedia article text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
Kyoto-Osaka: A Bilingual Atlas by Kodansha
The Radiance of Jade and the Clarity of Water: Korean Ceramics from the Ataka Collection, Osaka by Ikutaro Itoh
The Best of Kansai: Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe by John Frederick Ashburne
Periplus Osaka 2003/2004 by Tuttle Publishing
Energy Storage Systems in Electronics (New Trends in Electrochemical Technology) by Tetsuya Osaka
Murder in the Madhouse (Library of Crime Classics) by Jonathan Latimer
Kinki Lullaby by Isaac Adamson
Osaka, Japan City Map by ITMB by International Travel Maps
Visions of Virtue in Tokugawa Japan: The Kaitokudo Merchant Academy of Osaka by Tetsuo Najita
Transputer/Occam Japan 5: Proceedings of the 5th Transputer/Occam International Conference 10Th-11th June 1993 Osaka, Japan (Transputer and Occam* E) by S. Noguchi
Proceedings of the IV International Symposium on Weak and Electrom by Japan)/ Kishimoto Yamada Conference 1995 Osaka
International Symposium on New Developments in Applied Superconductivity: Suita, Osaka, Japan 17-19 Oct. 1988 (Progress in High Temperature Supercond) by Y. Murakami
Physics of Hadrons and Qcd: Proceedings of the Apctp-Rcnp Joint International School and the 1998 Yitp Workshop, Osaka and Kyoto, Japan October 1998 by Hiroyuki Yabu
Nuclear Beta Decays and the Neutrino: Proceedings of the International Symposium Osaka, Japan, June 1986 by T. Kotani
Proceedings of the 30th International Conference on High Energy Physics: Ichep 2000, Osaka, Japan 27 July-2 August 2000 by C.S. Lim
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