It was an era when Lake Kawachi was gradually buried and landed. Watanabe no Tsu, which was on the south bank of Kitahama from Tenmanbashi during this period, became the starting point for the Kumano pilgrimage that flourished at that time. At Shitennoji, the setting sun falling into the sea seen from the west gate was linked to the Pure Land faith and attracted many worshipers. The course leading from Watanabe no Tsu to Shitennoji, Sumiyoshi Taisha, and Kumano was visited by many people for worship and leisure, and the road was improved.

Rennyo, the 8th lord of the Jodo Shinshu sect, started the construction of Osaka Bosha (Ishiyama Gobo), which later became Osaka Hongan-ji (Ishiyama Hongan-ji), in the place where Osaka Castle is located as of 1496. At that time, the place name Kosaka at the tip of the Uemachi Plateau is said to be the etymology of “Osaka”. After that, the area around Gobo prospered as Jinaicho, and the foundation of present-day Osaka was born. In addition, Nobunaga Oda paid attention to the “Uemachi Plateau”, which is hard to be attacked by the enemy and has a good view, and said, “Osaka is about the best place in Japan in the first place.” Since the Uemachi Plateau has good water transportation by the Yamato and Yodo rivers and has a long history of international exchange, it was thought that getting here is the same as getting the world as well as Japan.

It was in 1580 that the 11th suzerain lord Kosa surrendered Ishiyama Hongan-ji to Nobunaga Oda. After that, it was Hideyoshi Toyotomi who succeeded Nobunaga’s will and achieved the unification of the world based in Osaka. He built Osaka Castle on the site of Ishiyama Honganji Temple and built the castle town of Osaka. He digs the Higashi-Yokobori River, Nishi-Yokobori River, Awabori River, etc., and builds Osaka, a base for shipping and water transportation. In addition, merchants were relocated from various places to concentrate industries such as cotton, oil, pharmaceuticals, and metal processing, and also focused on overseas trade, and merchants flew to Southeast Asia. However, Hideyoshi’s castle town, Osaka, became scorched earth in the winter and summer camps of Osaka in 1614 and 1615.

It was during the Edo period that Osaka, an economic city that was reconstructed from the burnt fields, became famous nationwide as the “kitchen of the world.” It became a “distribution base” where goods from all over the country were collected and shipped and prospered as the largest economic city in Japan linked to international trade. Among them, the rice market in the Dojima rice market was the standard for the national market. The tradesman culture that supports it has blossomed along with the business, and Ningyo Joruri led by Takemoto Gidayu (Ningyo Joruri developed in Osaka is known as “Bunraku”, and in 2008, UNESCO’s “Representative List of Human Intangible Cultural Heritage” (Table) was a great success in combination with Chikamatsu Monzaemon, and literary cultures such as Nishizuru Ihara and Akinari Ueda have blossomed. In addition, academic and educational culture also made a big leap with the opening of “Kaitokudo” and “Tekijuku”, and Tominaga Nakamoto learned from Kaitokudo and discovered the law of idea development and unique cultural patterns at that time. It had a great influence on the world of thought and produced many townsman scholars such as Yamagata Bantō, who is known as a thorough rationalist. Tekijuku, established by Koan Ogata, is a school of Dutch studies and medicine that brought up Yukichi Fukuzawa and Keisuke Otori, who were active in the Meiji Restoration. Tekijuku was established near Doshomachi, the center of Japanese drug dealers, and talented people from all over the country studied Dutch studies in Osaka, a town of free-spirited tradesmen. People gather in Osaka, the kitchen of the world where various supplies are exchanged, and flowers of literary arts, literature, education, and scholarship bloom. These cultures that bloomed in the Edo period are still alive in the town of Osaka.