It began around 1600 as a street between the Shinmachi neighbourhood and the theatres of Dōtonbori.
The arcade runs one block east of Midosuji Avenue, from Hommachi towards Shinsaibashi: the central stretch, about 660 m, is packed with more than a hundred shops under a canopy. It began as a connecting road between the red-light district of Shinmachi and the theatres of Dōtonbori, and became a shopping street when the area filled with merchants under the development of Semba ordered by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
The commercial fabric took shape from 1600 onwards along the road that linked Shinmachi and Dōtonbori. Semba was the merchants' neighbourhood built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi around the castle, and in the Edo period it became the commercial centre of the city: ‘built by Hideyoshi, grown under the Tokugawa’. Historically it was a wholesale district for textiles and haberdashery; today wholesale trade has almost disappeared, replaced by retail shops, restaurants and services.
ℹ️ Opening hours and closing days vary from shop to shop; it is a public street. Direct access from Hommachi and Shinsaibashi stations on the Midosuji Line (Osaka Metro).
🚉 Shinsaibashi · 5 min walk
Holidays in Japan? Plan them with us.Over 2,000 real places, a day-by-day itinerary.FreeOpen the map →Sources: osaka-info.jp
Nearby
Dōtonbori500 mphoto by そらみみ (Soramimi) · CC BY-SA 4.0
Hozenji Yokocho600 mphoto by Maarten Heerlien · CC BY 2.0
Kuromon Market900 mphoto by Mc681 · CC BY-SA 4.0
Karahori1 kmphoto by Kyoww · CC BY-SA 3.0