Osaka Castle:
Before Japan Had a Name
Archaeologists Wanted.

This is the origin story of Japan. Take a 7,000-year walk through time with a historian who lives beside it.

At the centre of this story is the port of Naniwa — a place so ancient it predates the word Japan itself. Naniwa is where Japan's first civilisation took root, where mainland Asia arrived on Japanese shores, where emperors built their capitals, and where Japan found its name. Understanding Naniwa unlocks everything: why this castle exists, why it fell, and why this small patch of ground is the hinge on which Japanese history turns. This 150-minute walk asks one question at every stop: why here? The hill stays the same. The answer evolves across seven millennia.

We begin at Tanimachi 4-Chome, where the present-day cityscape gives way to a vanished shoreline — the ancient boundary between sea and land that first made this hill worth claiming. The Jomon people settled here 7,000 years ago — before the pharaohs ruled Egypt. Their harbours and trade routes already stretched to Korea and China more than 1,500 years ago. Naniwa was not a provincial backwater. You will examine the archaeological evidence that proves it.

At the Naniwa Palace Site, you will step onto the foundations of Japan's 7th-century capital — where the Taika Reforms of 645 produced something entirely new: the idea of a Japanese Emperor as cosmic sovereign, the name Nihon and a framework of imperial legitimacy that every warlord, regent, and shogun would spend the next thousand years fighting to control. Kyoto is where the Emperor lived for over 1000 years. Naniwa is where the idea of the Empire was born.

The story then shifts to the former grounds of Ishiyama Hongan-ji. The Jesuits described it as the strongest fortress in Japan. Oda Nobunaga spent ten years failing to take it. Standing on its buried remains, you will reconstruct the stronghold that made the most powerful man in Japan look ordinary.

Finally, we enter Osaka Castle — built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi on the ashes of the fortress Nobunaga never conquered. This is where the greatest general of his age made his last stand. This is where a mother who had watched two castles burn made decisions historians still argue about. And this is where the 400-year official account of what happened to the lord and lady of the castle runs into physical evidence that refuses to cooperate.

We end our walk at the Aoyamon Gate: the threshold where that story closes. This is also where 7,000 years of the Uemachi Plateau's dominance ends. After 1615, power moves to Edo permanently. Osaka — Japan's most influential port, twice an imperial capital, the fortified town Nobunaga couldn't break and the castle Hideyoshi built on its ashes — ceases to be the centre of Japan's story.

This tour is ideal for: archaeology-minded travellers, repeat visitors to Japan, deep history seekers, and anyone who wants to understand Japan's origins rather than just its landmarks.

"I was born and raised in Osaka, but I had never looked at this place together with its history before. After hearing the detailed explanation this time, I understood why Naniwa Palace and Osaka Castle were built here.

I recommend exploring the area more deeply with Edward, like solving a mystery together. You will find Osaka and Osaka Castle ten times more interesting." - 森友子, Osaka