Osaka

Fifteen hundred years ago when known as Naniwa, Osaka developed as Japan's most significant gateway to China and Korea, which were then the cultural and political motors of East Asia. Many of the arts that typify Japanese culture and, in their refinement are perhaps more readily associated with aristocratic Kyoto rather than mercantile Osaka, have their roots in Osaka's role as a connection to Asia and grew up in the city. Bunraku, a traditional form of puppetry, Kabuki, the Japanese counterpart to Western opera, and Noh, the profound and minimal stage art, are all examples of these traditional forms of entertainment. Japan's oldest temple, the sprawling Shitenno-ji Temple in downtown Tennoji, was constructed in 539 by Prince Shotoku at the time of Buddhism's introduction to Japan from the mainland. A walk around the temple with its air of grandeur and majesty still intact will reveal what significance the area was invested with even in such ancient times. Osaka today retains its cultural significance, evidenced by the vibrant youth culture that the city produces, the fact that it is home to the National Bunraku (Puppet) Theatre, and that no less than five of Japan's eight Nobel laureates either hailed from or made their name in the area.

For a relatively brief time in the seventh and eighth centuries, Osaka had its turn at being Japan's capital: a period that saw Osaka's first serious growth as an urban center. Wars in the fourteenth century destroyed much of the city, but in 1496, Ren-nyo, the leader of the militant True Pure Land sect of Buddhism, chose Osaka as the site for his temple. The city grew rapidly around this new nucleus. The temple itself, Ishiyama Honganji Temple, was completed in 1532. The city became a temple town and around that time began to be known by the name Osaka. After a long siege, the temple was overcome and destroyed in 1580 by Oda Nobunaga. His successor, and the unifier of Japan's myriad domains, Toyotomi Hideyoshi chose in 1583 to build his fortress on the site of the temple. It survives to this day, although rebuilt in concrete after World War II, as Osaka Castle, a must-see, not only for the massive moat encircled stone walls it sits atop, but also for the expansive park that surrounds it, reflecting the seasons in the middle of Osaka's somewhat industrial grayness. Hideyoshi brought the whole of Japan under his control from Osaka Castle, and it remained Japan's center of power until he died in 1598.

In 1614-15 the next rival regime under the Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu laid siege to Osaka and the city suffered greatly. However, recognizing its importance as a center of commerce and culture, the shogun rebuilt the city and developed it extensively. In 1617 the building of canals was decreed, thus exploiting the many rivers that bisect the city. Osaka was unique in that, not being a political center anymore, it had no ruling samurai class and was completely in the hands of merchants, truly making it with its new canals the "Venice of the East." The country's feudal lords used it as the center of exchange for the rice taxes they levied and, what with the concomitant growth of commerce and industry, monetization soon followed.