Ōsaka

Osaka grew where the Yodo River system opened towards the Inland Sea. On the Uemachi plateau, Rennyo's retreat of 1496 developed into the fortified temple community of Ishiyama Honganji. Its adherents resisted Oda Nobunaga from 1570 until the settlement of 1580, when the temple community departed and its buildings burned. Toyotomi Hideyoshi began Osaka Castle in 1583, replacing the temple town with a castle and a new commercial settlement. The campaigns of 1614–1615 destroyed the Toyotomi regime and much of the city; the Tokugawa subsequently rebuilt both castle and town.

Canals and shipping made Osaka a great market for the produce of the domains. Daimyo maintained warehouse residences around Nakanoshima, selling tax rice through brokers and issuing rice bills that circulated among merchants. The rice market moved to Dojima around 1697; in 1730 the shogunate formally authorized trading in rice bills and rice futures there. Alongside this financial activity flourished kabuki and puppet theatre. During the famine years of the 1830s, however, dear rice and inadequate relief exposed the city's divisions. In 1837 the former official Oshio Heihachiro raised an unsuccessful revolt, and the ensuing fires devastated extensive urban districts.