Osaka City Central Public Hall

One of the most prominent public hall buildings in Japan, both the exterior and interior are highly finished and are considered important in the history of modern architecture in Japan, and are designated as National Important Cultural Properties of Japan.

The building, with its distinctive arched roof, has three stories above ground and one below, and while based on the Neo-Renaissance style, it has a baroque grandeur.

The ceiling and wall paintings in the special rooms depict the “Creation of Heaven and Earth” by Hisashi Matsuoka.

Construction began in 1911 with a donation of 1 million yen at the time (equivalent to several billion yen today) by Einosuke Iwamoto, a stockbroker and market trader who was known as “the windbag of Kitahama,” and the Central Public Hall was completed and opened in 1918.

The design of the building was selected first in an architectural design competition by Shinichiro Okada, who was 29 years old at the time, and Kingo Tatsuno and Yasushi Kataoka executed the design based on Okada’s original proposal. Kingo Tatsuno is also known as the architect of Tokyo Station.

On the other hand, Einosuke Iwamoto, a stockbroker, suffered heavy losses due to the stock market fluctuations caused by World War I and committed suicide with a pistol before the completion of the Central Public Hall.

The Osaka Central Public Hall has been used for performances by the Russian Opera Company, lectures by such luminaries as Albert Einstein, Helen Keller, and Gagarin, and has also been the site of memorial ceremonies following disasters.