Here I am in Osaka!
I stand by Sendan-no-ki Bridge and admire the beautiful neo-Renaissance architecture with red brick wall and dome-shaped bronze roof under the morning sun.
It is Osaka City Central Public Hall.
I walk around in Semba Area which surrounded by four rivers and has been the prosperous economic and cultural centre from the Edo period.
I see the stone monument shows the Osaka Tawaramono Kaisho once stood here.
Doshomachi area which has been known as “Medicine District”.
In the Edo period, the second Tokugawa Shogunate Hidetada ordered Kichiemon Konishi, a wealthy merchant of Sakai, to launch a medicinal business in Doshomachi.
Then many other wholesalers of medicine gathered here too.
They were authorised by the government as “Doshomachi association of apothecary brokers” and obtained the privilege to inspect various medicinal ingredients, set the fair price and monopolize the nationwide trade of them.
In the Meiji period, as Western medicine became popular, Doshomachi merchants established a corporative laboratory and started to manufacture medicines.
Many of them developed into large pharmaceutical companies.
Sukunahikona Shrine has a second name as Shinno-san.
Doctor Koan Ogata made a significant contribution to the treatment of cholera and prevention of smallpox.
In 1849, he opened Jotokan (vaccination house) at Doshomachi with other doctors to prevent smallpox which caused many deaths at the time.
He actively worked to promote the use of vaccination across the nation.
Nagoya Like It Is 