ArticleKey #18: A Commonplace Wonder - Osaka

Not only the wonder's name - The Osaka Museum of Housing and Living - is rather mundane, but the wonder itself somehow reminds of a vaguely familiar face one isn't quite able to place. An Open Air Museum built from scratch to recreate the past, or even transported from all over the country, house by house, and reassembled on a new location? Not exactly, because the one in Osaka is perched between the 8th and the 10th floors of a multi-storied building. A Mini-World type exhibition or a Miniature Museum where every exhibit is a tiny (and oh-so-exact!) copy of a typical structure like a manor or a storehouse? Not quite, because most structures on display in Osaka is life-size, and so are dogs

A theatrical set for a play about days of yore? Hardly so, because the buildings and models themselves (and spaces between them) are the main protagonists of the show, while occasional human actors are a support cast, at best.

As for the show itself, it tells the story of the city of Osaka - from its babyhood when it wasn't even called “Osaka” yet but “Naniwa”; through adolescence in the 19th century when the Great Edo finally ended, and eras began to follow each other more rapidly - and to adulthood in the 20th century marked by modern-looking houses

ultra-modern appliances (such as gas iron), and even an Amusement Spot built in 1912, Lunapark included

The exhibition is evenly spread between all three floors but Edo on the 9th floor (formally called “Town House Life in Edo-period Naniwa”) is arguably the biggest attraction as it hails from farthest back when that

was not just one of the rooms but a living space in its entirety. In a way, that's the time that's responsible for most stories - starting from a lucky charm cat protecting the neighbourhood (today he welcomes visitors to the museum)

There is a pharmacy known for its “advanced marketing” using a foreign-looking gibberish to mark perfectly homemade medicines, thus making them look more sophisticated 

There is also a bathhouse located next to the neighbourhood meeting hall and, essentially, doubling up as a more important one! Visiting a Japanese bathhouse has for centuries been an elaborate ritual whose significance is emphasized by a remarkably decorated entrance to the bathing area, as well as by the fact that everybody has to bow their respect to the place to even make it inside. 

Besides, the word combination “hot water” has its own character in Japanese, unrelated to either “hot” or “water”. Bathhouse owners would be particularly proud to be able to hang a sign with that character for everybody to see - every day, and at exactly the same time.

To spice up one's experience, the museum offers the passage of time and a change of weather as a bonus. Each day is divided into dawn, daytime, dusk and nighttime - and each phase lasts exactly 45 minutes

And every now and then, there is a nice little thunderstorm…