Discover the Roots of Osaka: A Sovereign State and Ancient City in the Days Prior to the Construction of Naniwa Palace

Osaka Museum of History

Earthenware discovered in the lower layer of the Naniwa Palace site (6th–7th centuries)

This event has ended.

The Osaka Museum of History will hold a special featured exhibition titled “Discover the Roots of Osaka: A Sovereign State and Ancient City in the Days Prior to the Construction of Naniwa Palace” in the Special Exhibition Hall on the 6th floor from July 16 (Sat.) to August 29 (Mon.), 2016.

According to Nihon Shoki (The Chronicles of Japan), the northern part of the Uemachi Upland in Osaka was a political and diplomatic center of the nation even before the national capital was relocated to Naniwa in 645. From archaeological excavations, it is known that warehouses, which were among the largest in Japan, were built in this site – the center of the Wa Kingdom (Yamato Sovereign) – in the 5th century, and that glass and iron products were intensively manufactured using the latest techniques in the wide area around the center of this site consisting of large buildings and warehouses, from the 6th century to the 7th century. Accordingly, we can reasonably conclude that the northern part of the Uemachi Upland was an urban center with a high mobility of people and goods, even before the construction of Naniwa Palace.

Designed to discover the roots of the metropolis of Osaka, this exhibition will explore how the northern part of the Uemachi Upland developed as the center of the Wa Kingdom, by showing a basemap that represents the geographic conditions and natural environment of the ancient Uemachi Upland, overlaid with the discoveries of past excavations, and this exhibition will visualize how this area might have looked prior to the construction of Naniwa Palace.