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OSAKA

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Originally appearing in Volume V20, Page 344 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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OSAKA , or OzAIA, a See also:

city of See also:Japan in the See also:province of Settsu. Pop. (1908) 1,226,590. It lies in a See also:plain bounded, except westward, where it opens on Osaka See also:Bay, by hills of considerable height, on both sides of the Yodogawa, or rather its headwater the Aji (the outlet of See also:Lake See also:Biwa), and is so intersected by See also:river-branches and canals as to suggest a comparison with a Dutch See also:town. Steamers ply between Osaka and Kobe-See also:Hiogo or Kobe, and Osaka is an important railway centre. The opening of the railway (1893) See also:drew See also:foreign See also:trade to Kobe, but a See also:harbour for ocean-steamers has been constructed at Osaka. The houses are mainly built of See also:wood, and on the 31st of See also:July 1909 some 12,000 houses and other buildings were destroyed by See also:fire. Shin-sai Bashi Suji, the See also:principal thoroughfare, leads from Kitahama, the See also:district lying on the See also:south See also:side of the Tosabori, to the See also:iron suspension See also:bridge (Shin-sai Bashi) over the Dotom-bori. The foreign See also:settlement is at Kawaguchi at the junction of the Shirinashi and the Aji. It is the seat of a number of See also:European See also:mission stations. Buddhist and Shinto temples are numerous. The principal See also:secular buildings are the See also:castle, the See also:mint and the See also:arsenal.

The castle was founded in 1583 by Hideyoshi; the enclosed See also:

palace, probably the finest See also:building in Japan, survived the See also:capture of the castle by Iyeyasu (1615), and in 1867 and 1868 witnessed the reception of the foreign legations by the See also:Tokugawa shoguns; but in the latter See also:year it was fired by the Tokugawa party. It now provides military headquarters, containing a See also:garrison and an arsenal. The whole castle is protected by high and massive walls and broad moats. Huge blocks of See also:granite measuring 40 ft. by 10 ft. or more occur in the See also:masonry. The mint, erected and organized by Europeans, was opened in 1871. Osaka possesses iron-See also:works, See also:sugar refineries, See also:cotton See also:spinning See also:mills, See also:ship-yards and a See also:great variety of other manufactures. The trade shows an increase commensurate with that of the See also:population, which in 1877 was only 284,105. Osaka owes its origin to Rennio Shonin, the eighth See also:head of the Shin-Shu See also:sect, who in 1495—1496 built, on the site now occupied by the castle, a See also:temple which afterwards became the principal See also:residence of his successors. In 1580, after ten years' successful See also:defence of his position, Kenryo, the See also:eleventh " See also:abbot," was obliged to surrender; and in 1583 the victorious Hideyoshi made Osaka his See also:capital. The town was opened to foreign trade in 1868.

End of Article: OSAKA

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