難波宮跡公園(なにわのみやあと公園)

A historic-site park spreading over Hoenzaka in Chuo-ku. In Showa 36 (1961) the excavation led by Professor Yamane Tokutaro of Osaka City University confirmed two successive palaces of Naniwa, from the Asuka and the Nara periods. About 90,000 square metres, taken as the centre of the palace, is now a national historic site and is being laid out as a park. The remains are shown in two ways: raised above the surrounding ground, with stone platforms, for the later Naniwa palace, built from Jinki 3 (726); and set a step lower with red tiles, the pillar positions marked in red granite and a sasanqua hedge around them, for Naniwa Nagara Toyosaki palace, the earlier one, begun in Hakuchi 1 (650) after the capital moved to Naniwa in the Taika reform. Towards the north of the centre of the park the Daigokuden, where the emperor is held to have conducted the formal business of state, has been rebuilt, and Osaka Castle can be seen from it.

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