Kawaguchi Christ Church Cathedral

The church stands in the Kawaguchi district of Nishi-ku, on the sandbank where the Ajikawa and the Kizugawa meet. Its full name is Kawaguchi Christ Church of the Nippon Sei Ko Kai. The building is of brick, Gothic in manner and plainly designed, a church with a two-storey tower; the chapel is a single room, with the altar at the far end on a floor raised by one step. It was completed in Taisho 9 (1920) to a design by the American architect William Wilson. A foreign settlement was laid out at Kawaguchi in Keio 4 (1868) when Osaka opened its port, and thirteen British firms, along with French, German, American, Dutch and Belgian trading houses, kept offices there. The paved streets separated footway from carriageway, lamps lit them and eucalyptus trees swayed along them, and Western food, bread, milk and laundries are all said to have begun here, so far had Western civilisation taken hold. The river was too shallow for large ships, however, so the area declined, trade shifted to the port of Kobe and the foreign residents moved away. The church is now the only building left that keeps something of Osaka as it was when the port opened. It is a registered tangible cultural property.

Translated from the Osaka Prefecture and Osaka City tourist listings (観光施設一覧, CC BY 4.0).