Nakanoshima means "Middle Island." It's a narrow stretch of land sandwiched between the Dojimagawa and Tosaborigawa rivers. In the Edo Period, there were many warehouses of domains from all over Japan along these riverbanks, to which virtually every product in Japan was transported to be bought and sold.
This Is the Way It Used to Be
The central business district of the city, including the courts, the major banks, and also Osaka City Hall, is located primarily in the Nakanoshima (Island) Area, between Kita and Minami. Unlike the bustling shopping energy of Kita to the north and the buzzing youthful energy of Minami to the south, the Nakanoshima Area is comparatively quiet. In addition to being the business and economic heart of the city, Nakanoshima is the historical heart too; it's filled with a great many important cultural sites and much retro refinement. If you want to get a sense for how Osaka used to be, even while at the same time you're feeling what it's like today, the Nakanoshima Area is the place to go.
It's One of the Most Charming Parts of Osaka
A delightful blend of old and new, Nakanoshima is a place where you can see modern skyscrapers and science museums almost side by side with elegant Neo-Renaissance structures from the last century. It's also a place where you can take historical walks that will take you back hundreds of years into the past.
Nakanoshima Historic Building Walk
Beginning your walk at Nakanoshima Park and strolling westward to explore the area along Mido-Suji Avenue and Sakai-Suji Avenue, you will discover many historic old buildings of unique and classic architecture. The stately Osaka branch of the Bank of Japan was built in 1903. The atmospheric Osaka Prefecture Nakanoshima Library, with its dignified architecture and stately columns, was built in 1904. Further on is the stunning Central Public Hall, built with contributions from the stock trader Einosuke Iwamoto.
Across the Naniwabashi Bridge (popularly called the Lion Bridge) you will find the former Osaka Stock Exchange building. Further west are the black walls of the Aishu Kindergarten, built in 1901, as well as Tekijyuku, a school of Dutch studies opened by Ogata Koan (1810-1863). Materials and documents relating to Ogata and his students are on display inside the building, which is a carefully preserved typical merchant's house of the Edo Period. (Tekijyuku, which is a National Historic Site and National Important Cultural Asset, is still active as an educational institution; it is Japan's only remaining school for studying Western science in Dutch).
To the south you will see the Naniwa Church, built in 1930 by the great Meiji architect W M Vories; the Mengyo Kaikan Hall with its chic facade, which was a symbol of the flourishing spinning and textiles industry, built in 1931; the Ikoma Building, designed by Heizo Mune, built in 1930. And further south is the Meijiya Building, built in 1924.
At the corner of Hiranomachi on Mido-Suji Avenue is the Osaka Gas Building, built and designed by Takeo Yasui. The streamlined architecture of this building illustrates the transition from the decorative movement to the functional movement which took place from the 1920s to 1930s. Other areas of the city where you can find more beautiful and distinctive retro architecture: around Minato-Dori Street, which was the main street in Osaka in the Meiji Period; in Dojima; and west of Nakanoshima.
Things to See and Do
This area is a Mecca for history and culture. It has several unique museums like the Doshomachi Pharmaceutical and Historical Museum, and the Entrepreneurial Museum of Challenge and Innovation, which are designed to display the Nakanoshima Area's academic and commercial past. The Osaka Science Museum is also located here. There are concert and performance halls as well as fine art museums. Most notable are the many historic buildings which pepper the cityscape around here; they are in Neo-Renaissance and other classic styles. And the most charming part of the district, of course, is Nakanoshima itself, the island which sits like a gem in the middle of two rivers.
