A0S01 &#8211; Semba at a Glance

Semba is said to have been where the workers who built Osaka Castle lived. Following the Winter Siege of Osaka in 1614, entering into the Edo period (1603-1867), the Tokugawa family brought in experts in city development and craftsmen from all over Japan in order to rebuild Osaka Castle and revitalize the city. Fushimimachi, which is said to have been named such because of the residents of that area who relocated from Fushimi in Kyoto, is an easy-to-understand example. It is also the flip-side to the fact that Fushimi-Momoyama Castle, which had been under the control of Nobunaga and Hideyoshi, was abandoned.
After that, inns, restaurants, money changers, clothing and hardware stores and more began springing up in the Semba area, and it flourished as the center of Japanese economy and logistics. Semba serves as the foundation of the city of commerce that is Osaka, which continues to thrive as “the world’s kitchen”.

The Semba Center Building, which runs through the middle of the Semba area, exists as a landmark of the region and serves as the linchpin of finance, transport, and logistics.

Working toward completion in time for the 1970 Japan World Expo. The unusual design fuses the highway and the building together.

View of the Chikko-Fukae Line in the Semba district The building was constructed in the area shown in the center of the photograph.
<1969 or earlier>

Mengyo Club was founded in 1928 with the goal of promoting and developing the Japanese cotton industry, and construction of Mengyo Kaikan was completed in 1931.

From Osaka Gyokokinen Kuchushashincho
<late Taisho era (1912-1926)>

Semba lies directly to the west of Osaka Castle and developed by utilizing the extensive network of canals for transport.
From Shin Chomei-iri Osaka Shigai Zenzu
<published in 1900>

Semba is bordered by the Higashiyokobori River on the east, the Nishiyokobori River (now where northbound lanes of the Hanshin Expressway run) on the west, the Tosabori River on the north, and Nagahori-dori (formerly the Nagahori River) on the south.
Legend has it “Semba” is derived from the fact that it was surrounded by canals and rivers such as the Higashiyokobori, and the characters quite plainly illustrate how ships cross paths here. Other theories state that, being just to the west of Osaka Castle, it is a permutation of the similar-sounding Japanese word for “battlefield” as it was used as a training ground for soldiers, or that it came from a homonym that means “horse washing”.