Toyotomi Hideyoshi was the son of a peasant soldier with no surname. He ended up unifying Japan, invaded Korea twice and built in Osaka the most imposing castle in the country. His son lost everything to the Tokugawa in 1615, but the city became the capital of merchants. Twelve stops between the main gate, the hundred-tonne stones, the keep rebuilt by local people, the place of the last suicide, the warrior who nearly killed Ieyasu, the temple of the world's oldest company, the district of the 1912 tower, the nation's kitchen, the canal of the man who died defending the castle, the shopping street and the world's first futures exchange. Approximate audio duration: 19 minutes.
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Osaka: el castillo del campesino que llegó a gobernar Japón
Toyotomi Hideyoshi era hijo de un soldado campesino sin apellido. Terminó unificando Japón, invadió Corea dos veces y levantó en Osaka el castillo más imponente del país. Su hijo lo perdió todo frente a los Tokugawa en 1615, pero la ciudad se convirtió en la capital de los comerciantes. Doce paradas entre la puerta principal, las piedras de cien toneladas, la torre reconstruida por los vecinos, el lugar del último suicidio, el guerrero que casi mató a Ieyasu, el templo de la empresa más antigua del mundo, el barrio de la torre de 1912, la cocina de la nación, el canal del hombre que murió defendiendo al castillo, la calle comercial y la primera bolsa de futuros del mundo. Duración aproximada de audio: 19 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~19 min of audio · 13.72 km on foot (~3 h 25 min walking) · about 3 h 45 min in total
You are in front of Otemon, the main gate of Osaka Castle. Look at the wide moat and the stone walls rising on a slope. All this was built by a man born with nothing.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi was born around 1537 in Owari province, the son of a foot soldier of peasant origin. He had no surname. He was short, thin and wrinkle-faced. His lord, Oda Nobunaga, called him the monkey.
He started as a servant. It is said he warmed Nobunaga's sandals by keeping them inside his clothes. He rose through intelligence, a talent for negotiation and an ability to organise armies.
When Nobunaga died by betrayal …
2
Stones to Bury an Enemy
Step into the square courtyard behind Sakuramon gate and look at the back wall. There is an enormous smooth stone, about eleven metres long and more than five high. It is called Tako-ishi, the octopus stone, because of a mark that looks like an octopus.
It is estimated to weigh over a hundred tonnes. It was brought by sea from the west on barges and hauled up with rollers, ropes and thousands of men.
There is a surprise: Hideyoshi did not put this stone here. Almost everything you see in today's castle was built by his enemies, the Tokugawa, after they destroyed the Toyotomi castle in 1615.
…
3
A Keep Paid for by the Townspeople
There is the keep of Osaka Castle: white, with green roofs and golden tigers and fish on the ridges. It is one of the most famous images of Japan. And it is concrete, with a lift.
Hideyoshi began building his castle in 1583 on the site of a fortress temple that Nobunaga had besieged for ten years. His keep was decorated with gold and was the symbol of his power. European missionaries wrote that there was nothing like it in Japan.
That keep burned in 1615. The one the Tokugawa built afterwards was destroyed by lightning in 1665. For more than two hundred and sixty years Osaka had no keep.
In…
4
The End of a Dynasty
In this quiet corner of the park, among trees, is a stone with an inscription. It marks the place where, in June 1615, Toyotomi Hideyori, Hideyoshi's son, and his mother, Yodo-dono, died.
Hideyoshi died in 1598, when his son was five. He made his leading lords swear to protect him. The most powerful of them, Tokugawa Ieyasu, swore. Two years later, at Sekigahara, he defeated the Toyotomi supporters and in 1603 made himself shogun.
Hideyori went on living in this castle, rich and respected, for more than ten years. He was a threat: many discontented samurai saw him as the legitimate heir.
In…
5
The Finest Warrior in Japan
You are at the small Yasui shrine on a hill in the Tennoji district. Beside a tree is a bronze statue of a samurai sitting, tired, in full armour. It is Sanada Yukimura.
In the winter siege of 1614, Yukimura built an earth fort south of the castle, the Sanadamaru. From there he repelled thousands of Tokugawa soldiers. It was Ieyasu's greatest humiliation in that campaign.
In the summer of 1615, with the moats filled in, Yukimura knew the battle was lost. He decided to stake everything: he launched a direct charge at Ieyasu's headquarters.
According to the chronicles, his red-armoured horsem…
6
The Fourteen-Hundred-Year-Old Company
You are at Shitenno-ji, one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan. According to tradition it was founded in 593 by Prince Shotoku, the great champion of Buddhism in the country. The pagoda and current buildings are later reconstructions.
To build it, the prince brought specialist carpenters over from Korea. One of them founded a family temple-building firm: Kongo Gumi.
Kongo Gumi operated without interruption, father to son, from the year 578 until 2006. It was considered the oldest family business in the world. For centuries it maintained this temple and built or repaired many of Japan's …
7
The New World of 1912
You are in Shinsekai, the new world. Giant signs of inflatable fish, neon lights, fried skewer restaurants. And in the middle, an iron tower: Tsutenkaku, the tower reaching heaven.
The district opened in 1912. Its creators wanted to combine two models: the northern half imitated Paris, with avenues fanning out from the tower, inspired by the Eiffel Tower; the southern half imitated Coney Island, with an amusement park.
It was the Osaka of the industrial boom, the largest and richest city in Japan in the twenties, more populous even than Tokyo after the 1923 earthquake. It was called the Manc…
8
The Nation's Kitchen
You are in Kuromon market, some six hundred metres of covered stalls: tuna, sea urchins, crabs, perfect fruit, grilled skewers. Osaka's restaurant cooks have been shopping here for two centuries.
In the Edo period Osaka was called tenka no daidokoro: the nation's kitchen. Not because people cooked better, but because everything arrived here.
Feudal lords collected taxes in rice. That rice was shipped to Osaka, stored in great warehouses and sold. Salt, seaweed, timber, cotton, sake and oil also arrived from all over the country to be redistributed.
Osaka's merchants became richer than many …
9
The Canal of the Man Who Died for the Toyotomi
You are in Dotonbori, on Ebisubashi bridge. Along the canal, enormous signs, a giant mechanical crab and the famous Glico runner with arms raised, which has been shining here since the thirties.
The canal has a story almost no one knows. In 1612 a merchant named Yasui Doton began digging it with his own money to improve the city's trade.
In 1615 the summer siege broke out. Doton, loyal to the Toyotomi, abandoned the works, entered Osaka Castle to defend it and died in the battle. His cousin finished the canal that same year.
The Tokugawa, the victors, could have erased his memory. Instead t…
10
The Merchants' Street
You are on Shinsaibashi-suji, a covered shopping arcade almost six hundred metres long. Department stores, luxury brands, pharmacies, crowds. It is one of Osaka's oldest shopping streets.
The name comes from a bridge built in 1622 by a merchant, Okada Shinsai, over a canal that no longer exists. That was the Osaka way: bridges and canals were built not by the government but by merchants, for their business.
Of the more than two hundred bridges of Edo-period Osaka, almost all were built and maintained by the residents themselves. That is why it was called the city of eight hundred and eight b…
11
The World's First Futures Exchange
You are beside the Dojima River, in front of a monument shaped like a pile of rice sacks. It marks the site of the Dojima rice market. Here, according to many economists, the world's first organised futures market was born.
Remember: feudal lords collected their taxes in rice. They needed money, so they sold the rice in Osaka, often before it was harvested. Merchants bought receipts for rice that did not yet exist.
Over time those receipts began to be bought and sold among the merchants themselves, betting on whether the price would rise or fall. In 1730 the shogunate officially recognised t…
12
A Speculator's Gift
You are on Nakanoshima, a long island between two rivers in the centre of Osaka. Look at the red brick building with a great dome: it is the Central Public Hall, opened in 1918.
In the Edo period this island was occupied by the feudal lords' rice warehouses: more than a hundred storehouses, each with its own wharf. A good part of Japan's rice passed through here.
The hall has a very Osaka story. It was paid for by a stockbroker, Iwamoto Einosuke, who had made a fortune speculating. In 1911 he donated a huge sum so that the city could have a great public hall.
Years later Iwamoto lost everyt…
How long does the "Osaka: the Castle of the Peasant Who Came to Rule Japan" audio tour take?
It has about 19 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 13.72 km walking route (~3 h 25 min on foot). Plan roughly 3 h 45 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Monkey Who Became a General" (coordinates 34.6837, 135.523). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Osaka and pick "Osaka: the Castle of the Peasant Who Came to Rule Japan". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Japanese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Korean
