On July 31, 1909 (Meiji 42) a fire broke out at a knit-wear factory in the northern part of Osaka that would continue to rage for 24 hours. It destroyed 122 ha. (301 acres) of the city, the equivalent of 228 football fields.
A view of Lake Yunoko (湯の湖) and the hot spring hotels of Yumoto (湯元), near Nikko in Tochigi Prefecture.
This glass slide shows the second Osaka Station in all of its glory. Opened in July 1901 (Meiji 34), the Gothic style building was two stories high and built of granite, giving it a massive and imposing look.
This very rare image shows the Tako no Matsu (鮹之松, Octopus Pine) at Osaka’s Nakanoshima. The tree was so famous, ukiyoe woodblock prints and guidebooks celebrated it.
Osaka City Hall in Nakanoshima. Built between 1918 (Taisho 7) and 1921 (Taisho 10), Osaka City Hall was designed by representative Meiji Era architects like Yasushi Kataoka, Hikotaro Imabayashi and others, who followed an original design by Yokichi Ogawa.
Dojima and Sonesaki on both sides of Osaka’s Shijimi River (蜆川) were devastated by the Great Kita Fire of July 31, 1909 (Meiji 42). The river, which played an important part in Osaka culture was filled in with the rubble and forever vanished from Osaka’s townscape.