Osaka City Hall in Nakanoshima. Built between 1918 (Taisho 7) and 1921 (Taisho 10), Osaka City Hall was designed by representative Meiji Era architects like Yasushi Kataoka, Hikotaro Imabayashi and others, who followed an original design by Yokichi Ogawa.
It was said that the tower on the roof was built to make City Hall look just a little higher than the nearby District Court, which had been completed in 1917 (Taisho 6) and had a very imposing red brick tower (partly visible behind City Hall on this image).
Osaka already looks thoroughly modern on this postcard, with the stone City Hall in the foreground, the street cars, automobiles and the concrete and brick buildings in the back. A far cry from the townscape full of traditional wooden architecture that had graced this area until the Great Kita Fire of 1909 (Meiji 42).
Starting in 1982 (Showa 57) City Hall was gradually torn down and in 1986 (Showa 61) it was replaced by a modern building. For other photos of Nakanoshima, click here.
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Kjeld Duits
Reference for Citations
Duits, Kjeld (). Osaka 1920s: Osaka City Hall, OLD PHOTOS of JAPAN. Retrieved on February 2, 2026 (GMT) from https://www.oldphotosjapan.com/photos/414/osaka-city-hall
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