Naniwa Bridge

Naniwa Bridge carries Sakaisuji over the Tosabori River, Nakanoshima Park and the Dojima River, and is about 190 m long in all. Stone lion statues stand at the four ends of the bridge, two in the 'a' form and two in the 'un' form, so it is also known by the nickname Lion Bridge. In the Edo period this was a wooden bridge on Naniwabashi-suji, the street just west of Sakaisuji, with its north end in Hinoue-cho and its south end in Kitahama 1-chome. It was about 207 m long and 5.7 m wide, and it was a kogi-bashi, a bridge under the direct control of the shogunate. Because it arched upward, people on it could look out over the 16 bridges nearby and the mountains in the distance, and the bridge is said to have been a first-class seat for watching fireworks and taking the evening cool, busy as a place to spend leisure time. In Meiji 45 (1912) it was moved to its present position when the municipal tram line on Sakaisuji was extended from Kitahama north to Tenjinbashi 6-chome. The design, with its ornate lamps and the wide stone stairway in the middle that leads down to Nakanoshima Park, is a fine piece of work aimed at creating an urban landscape. Modern retro buildings, among them the Osaka Securities Exchange, cluster nearby.

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