Osaka Museum of History

What makes it special

The tenth floor opens on a partial reconstruction of the Daigokuden, the great hall of Naniwa Palace, built close to its real scale. Its thick vermilion pillars stand in clean rows, with mannequins of court retainers in full dress between them. The figures are about 150 cm tall, the height the retainers are thought to have been, so they look small beside you.

The palace stood on this ground in the 7th century, and the centre of its site is now a park a few hundred metres away, just beyond the expressway. Digs in this area turned up a warehouse, walls and the palace's water supply. Many of those partly dug remains are kept on view inside the building.

Below the palace, the floors move forward in time. The ninth turns to daily life in the Edo period, with miniatures of the merchant quarter and its markets, and another floor holds a life-size replica of the palace dig, with the tools and methods used to study it. The route ends on full-size streets of shopping arcades and suburban homes, before the Second World War.

Visiting

Look through the glass panels in the first-floor hall floor before you go anywhere: real remains of Naniwa Palace lie beneath them. Then take the lift straight to the tenth floor, where the route begins.

The permanent display fills floors 7 to 10, one period to a floor, and you walk it downward, passing the castle view on the way to the escalator.

A highlights run takes about an hour, and reading the panels properly takes longer. Slow down on the tenth floor, where you can try on clothes cut like a Nara-era court official's, and at the hands-on dig replica.

Guided or on your own

Rent the audio guide at the start if you want the story behind each floor, because English on the panels thins out quickly. For the excavated palace remains, ask at the first-floor reception desk about the free volunteer-led tour: book a place there on arrival and ask when the next one starts.

Tips

Photography is allowed in the permanent galleries for personal use only. The first floor has coin lockers and a nursery room, and the information counter keeps bags too big for the lockers.

Strollers are allowed unless the museum is very crowded. Osaka Castle is directly across the road, so pair the two on one morning; the museum offers a discount on combined tickets.