Osaka Central Public Hall

photo by Daniel Lu · CC BY-SA 4.0

photo by kajikawa · CC BY 3.0

A private citizen paid for it out of his own pocket in 1913; you can walk round the basement for free.

Red brick and white stone on the tip of Nakanoshima Island, between two branches of the river. On the basement floor there is an exhibition room on the history of the building, which you can enter and walk round without paying and without booking. The rest is a concert hall for hire: the Special Room, which is decorated, can only be seen on the guided tour.

Work began in 1913 with a donation from a citizen, Iwamoto Einosuke, and the building opened in 1918: the outline design is by Okada Shin'ichirō, the detailed design by Tatsuno Kingo and Kataoka Yasushi, in the Neo-Renaissance style. Between 1999 and 2002 it was restored and seismically isolated while keeping the original design, and in December 2002 it became the first public building in western Japan to be designated an Important Cultural Property.

ℹ️ The basement exhibition room is open to all and free, 9:30–21:30. Closed on the fourth Tuesday of the month and from 28 December to 4 January. The thirty-minute guided tour costs 500 yen, takes place at 10:00 and 11:00, must be booked and does not run every day. Five minutes' walk from Yodoyabashi, six from Kitahama, one from Naniwabashi.

🚉 Yodoyabashi · 4 min walk

Sources: osaka-chuokokaido.com · osaka-info.jp

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