OZAKA, or Osaka, one of the three imperial cities of Japan (Kioto and Tokio or Yedo being the other two), is situated in a plain in the province of Setsu or Sesshiu, measuring about 20 miles from north to south and from 15 to 20 miles east and west, and bounded, except towards the west, where it opens on Idzuminada Bay, by hills of considerable height. It lies on both sides of the Yodogawa, or rather of its headwater the Aji (the outlet of Lake Biwa), and is so intersected by river-branches and canals as to suggest a comparison with Venice or Stockholm. River steamers ply between Ozaka and its port Hiogo or Kobe, and a railway between the two places, opened in 1873, has since been extended to Kioto and farther. The streets are not very broad, but for the most part they are regular and well kept; the houses, about 20 or 25 feet in height, are all built of wood. Shin-sai Bashi Suji, the principal thoroughfare, leads from Kitahama, the district lying on the south side of the Tosabori, to the iron suspension bridge (Shin-sai Bashi) over the Dotom-bori. The foreign settlement is at Kawaguchi at the junction of the Shirinashi-gawa and the Aji-Kawa. It is almost deserted by the foreign merchants, who prefer to have their establishments at Kobe, but it is the seat of a number of European mission stations. Though the Buddhist temples of Ozaka number 1380 and the Shinto temples 538, few of them are of much note. The Buddhistic Tennoji, founded by Shotoku Tai-shi, and restored in 1664, covers an immense area at the south-east corner of the city, and has a fine pagoda from which an admirable view of the country is obtained. Two other Buddhist temples, which form a conspicuous object in the heart of the city, are occupied, one as a Government hospital and the other as a Government ...school. The principal secular buildings are the castle, the mint, and the arsenal. The castle was founded in 1584 by Hideyoshi; the enclosed palace, “probably the finest building Japan ever saw,” survived the capture of the castle by Iyeyasu, and in 1867 and 1878 witnessed the reception of the foreign legations by the Tokugawa shoguns; but in the latter year it was fired by the Tokugawa party. Externally the whole castle is protected by a double enceinte of high and massive walls and broad moats—the outer moat from 80 to 120 yards across and from 12 to 24 feet deep. Huge blocks of granite_40 feet by 10 or 20 feet occur in the masonry. The mint,'erected by T. J. Waters, and organized by Major T. W. Kinder and twelve European officials, covers an area of 40 acres, and employs about 600 persons. It was opened in 1871. Both cannon and guns are manufactured in the arsenal. Apart from these Government establishments Ozaka is the seat of great industrial activity, possessing iron foundries, copper foundries, and rolling mills, antimony works, large glass works, paper mills, a sugar refinery, a cotton spinning mill, rice mills, an oil factory, sulphuric acid works, match factories, soap works, saké distilleries, a brewery (after the German pattern), shipyards, &c. Bronzes, sulphuric acid, and matches are among its chief exports. In the surrounding district large quantities of rape-seed are grown. The population in 1872 was 271,992; in 1877, 284,105.
Ozaka owes its origin to Ren-nio Sho-nin, the 8th head of the Shin-Shiu sect, who in 1495-6 built, on the site now occupied by the castle, a temple which afterwards became the principal residence of his successors. In 1580, after ten years’ successful defence of his position, Ken-nio, the 11th “abbot,” was obliged to surrender; and in 1583 the victorious Hideyoshi made Ozaka his capital. The town was opened to foreign trade in 1868.
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