When the New Osaka Hotel opened in 1935, it was one of Japan’s finest hotels. It even boasted air-conditioned guest rooms, a world’s first. This rare pamphlet from its early days offers a fascinating peek inside.
Osaka’s Kitahama business district in the 1920s. New concrete buildings contrast sharply with nearby wooden architecture. It felt modern and vibrant and was praised as “magnificent urban beauty.”
Osaka’s brand-new heart in the 1920s, the government district on Nakanoshima. The imposing building in front is Osaka City Hall, completed in 1921 (Taisho 10). From here a modern Osaka was created.
After Japan’s first powered airplane flight in 1910, bird’s-eye view maps boomed. This essay explores a masterpiece of this genre, a 1924 map of Osaka.
A young employee of a charcoal dealer carries packs of charcoal. An extensive charcoal infrastructure as well as ingenious methods kept the fires in Japan’s millions of hibachi burning.
Renowned American photographer Henry Strohmeyer (right) and his friend drinking Japanese tea while sitting close to hibachi, one wooden and the other metal. Hibachi came in countless forms and styles.