Osaka– category –

I got off the train at Kishiwada Station a little after 7 p.m. By then, the Kishiwada Danjiri Matsuri had been running for thirteen hours. The floats had rolled out at 6 that morning, and I assumed whatever fire the day started with had ...

There's a bench at the southwestern edge of Osaka Castle Park, overlooking the inner moat, that I consider my seat. It doesn't matter whether the cherry blossoms are out. From here, you can't even see the tower. What you can see is the m...

The Line Before the Gates — Osaka Castle's Nishinomaru Garden An hour before opening, there was already a line outside Nishinomaru Garden. My first thought: the main keep must be chaos. I'd spent the last half hour photographing the moat...

The monks fought back. For ten years, they held a fortress on this exact ground against the most powerful warlord Japan had ever produced. They survived sea blockades, artillery, and the full military weight of Oda Nobunaga — the man who...

The Man Who Knew "No way." I said it quietly, to no one. A Western man stood alone at the gate, holding up his phone—not toward the castle, not toward the skyline, but at a wooden pillar. A pillar that no one ever photographs. A pillar w...

Clear skies. Cherry blossoms at full bloom. A Sunday. I am not optimistic enough to expect Osaka Castle to be quiet under these conditions. But at 9:00 a.m., the moment the gates open, I walk straight toward the keep without breaking str...