When was osaka founded

It sits on the Seto Inland Sea, a heavily-trafficked body of water, and faces Osaka Bay at a place where rivers flowing from the inland converge. In ancient days when transit by car or train was still an impossible dream, Osaka had developed as an economic center and as a gateway welcoming traders and travelers from all across Asia. At this time, the area prospered as the economic and political heart of Japan in antiquity. Thought to be located somewhere near modern-day Chuo-ku in Osaka City, Naniwa-zu was at the time a newly-developed port used as an entryway into Japan from Korean, China, and other countries in Asia.

The visitors coming to Osaka from elsewhere in Asia are said to have brought much to the area: cutting-edge technology for creating new, novel crafts and pottery, techniques for forging, and the newest methods and know-how. It's around this time that Buddhism began spreading in Japan, a nation that had until then not yet received the sutras.

All these techniques and learnings were introduced into the other regions of Japan with truly shocking speed. Buddhism spread across the nation as well, and in Prince Shotoku erected Shitenno-ji Temple in modern-day Tennoji-ku.

With these developments, Osaka transformed into an international metropolis engaged in exchange with other Asian nations. Come , Emperor Kotoku moved the capital from Nara to Osaka. Nowadays, right here in the city you can take a tour of the palace that Emperor Kotoku built, over at the Remains of Naniwa-no-Miya Palace Park. It's considered Japan's oldest imperial palace. Even after the capital was relocated, Osaka continued to develop as Japan's second-ranked city: In particular, it became the face that the nation showed the rest of Asia, playing an important part as a place of commercial and cultural exchange.

In , the capital was at Heian-kyo. The period that follows is called the Heian period — , and during this time countless Buddhist temples were established in Osaka and Kyoto. It was in this era, as well, that women's culture flourished, from arts and crafts to literary works like Murasaki Shikibu's 11th-century "Tale of Genji.

Minamoto no Yoritomo took power and established the Kamakura shogunate. From this period, conflicts emerged more and more often as the country moved toward the Sengoku or Warring States period, which spanned from the midth to the beginning of the 17th centuries. Huge warehouses dotted the banks of the rivers and canals. A total of bridges connected the land-sites of the city.

The whole network was taken over by the city government in and turned into a public transportation system.

During its peak the system had 31 piers in key areas of the city. By the s, Tokyo began to catch up. Osaka received worldwide attention in when it hosted a World Exposition.

It wasn't damaged much by the Kobe earthquake even though Kobe is only 45 minutes away by train. People from Osaka and Kansai are regarded as more outgoing, pragmatic, independent and irreverent than other Japanese particularly those from Tokyo. They are more likely to jaywalk, gamble, show their feelings, display rude or inconsiderate behavior, smoke in no smoking areas, and show disdain for bureaucracy and rules Osaka-ban , the Osaka dialect, is regarded as rough and crude by many other Japanese.

There is also a more unsavory side to this. Osaka is No. When you ask a Tokyoite for directions they point in the direction. When you ask a Kansai person for directions they take you there. It has been said that Osakan friendliness has it roots in the absence of samurai and the presence of a large number of merchants. One Osakan told the Japan Times, "Merchants consider everyone a potential customer. They don't want to run the risk of losing you as a customer so they go out of their way to be friendly.

A common Osakan greeting is "Are you making any money? Osakans are very stubborn about keeping their dialects even after living years in Tokyo. The Osakan dialect is almost like the Japanese equivalent of cockney English. It is full of colorful expressions and is the source of amusement in many comedy routines. See People; Personality, Regional Differences. Osaka people and Tokyoites and are the two dominate groups in Japan. Sometimes they have different customs.

In Tokyo people stand on the left of escalators and pass on the right. The opposite is true in Osaka. Kansai people were known as the biggest cowards in World War II. They had a much higher rate of desertion and running away than Japanese from other regions. People from Tokyo and Kanto are regarded as busy, cold, impersonal, polite, formal and stressed out. They are less likely to have a desire to stand out and they favor brown, gray and earth-toned colors.

Many of the stereotypes that are used to describe Japanese as a whole seem more apt for Tokyoites than Japanese outside of Tokyo. Tokyo is where the samurai class was based in the Edo period and the culture has a long history of obedience, duty and following rules.

Osakans are regarded as very impatient. Goods from around the country were transported to Osaka by water and stored in domain warehouses. Courtesy Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library. Regional lords needed to pay taxes to the shogunate and would exchange rice collected through their own land taxation activities and stored at their riverside warehouses in Osaka for money, gauging when rates were most favorable. Osaka also became a center for Genroku culture that flourished from the second half of the seventeenth century to the early eighteenth century.

Great writers of the period like Osaka-born Ihara Saikaku, known for his novels depicting the lives of merchants and other local citizens, and playwright Chikamatsu Monzaemon won great popularity in the city. In the mid-nineteenth century, early foreign visitors to Osaka saw resemblances to European cities like Paris and Venice.

The growth of the textile industry, including cotton spinning, particularly drew comparisons to the British city. In , the city incorporated 44 neighboring towns and villages to secure new land for homes and industry, swelling in size to square kilometers and a population of 2.

Around this period, improvements were made to infrastructure like roads, rail lines, water supplies, and sewer services. Osaka City Central Public Hall was designated as an important cultural property in Osaka followed Western models to modernize the facilities on Nakanoshima Park and its central wholesale markets.

Railway companies also began to manage sports facilities, beaches, and amusement parks. It has always been a vital connection, by land and sea, between Yamato modern day Nara Prefecture , Korea , and China. Settsu , a former province of Japan, consisted of the northern part of modern Osaka prefecture and the seaside part of Hyogo Prefecture.

Historical records seem to indicate that the Yamato people the Japanese first came upon the area, at the mouth of the Yodo River, in They met resistance from the native people of the region, and fought them for roughly five years, before enthroning their emperor at a site called Kashiwabara.