A Japanese siege gun, known as an “Osaka Baby,” fires during the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905. War accelerated Osaka’s industrialization, driving a dramatic shift from light to heavy industry.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Osaka’s Kitahama business district in the 1920s. New concrete buildings contrast sharply with nearby wooden architecture. It felt modern and vibrant and was praised as “magnificent urban beauty.”| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Osaka’s brand-new heart in the 1920s, the government district on Nakanoshima. The imposing building in front is Osaka City Hall, completed in 1921 (Taisho 10). From here a modern Osaka was created.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
After Japan’s first powered airplane flight in 1910, bird’s-eye view maps boomed. This essay explores a masterpiece of this genre, a 1924 map of Osaka.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN
Shinjuku in the early 1920s. A railway and population explosion turned it into a thriving modern city. Jūnisō, no longer rural and remote, now became a geisha district, delighting some, enraging others.| OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN