Kitashinchi

Kita's upmarket nightlife quarter of bars, clubs and Japanese restaurants: a rectangle about 500 m east to west and 250 m north to south between Route 2, the Dojima River, Midosuji and Yotsubashi. It began in 1688, when work on the Yodo River's channels created Dojima Shinchi. The Dojima rice market was later held here, and teahouses, bathhouses and theatres were licensed around it. As the rice market grew and Dojima became a merchants' district, the pleasure quarter moved across the Sonezaki River to Sonezaki Shinchi, which was officially licensed in 1842. In 1912 the Sonezaki River was filled in, and the two Shinchi became today's Kitashinchi. After the war it was where business leaders met and traded news, and it was called the chamber of commerce by night.

Translated and shortened from the Osaka Prefecture tourist listing (大阪府 観光施設一覧, CC BY 4.0).