Tenjinbashisuji Shopping Street

Starting at Tenjin Bridge and running north to Tenjinbashi 7-chome, this shopping street is about 2.6 km long, said to be the longest in Japan, and takes about 40 minutes to walk. Some 800 shops line the arcade: old-style canteens, delis, a knife shop run by generations of swordsmiths, a tea shop founded in 1868, tofu, croquettes, pottery, kimono and more. It began in the Edo period as the town in front of Osaka Tenmangu, the shrine in 2-chome to Sugawara no Michizane, god of learning, and grew into a shopping street from the Meiji era. The Osaka Museum of Housing and Living in 6-chome recreates the town from the Edo period through Meiji, Taisho and Showa. At the Tenjin Matsuri on 24 and 25 July every year, local portable shrines are carried along the street among food stalls and shows.

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