[Special Feature: Viewing the City from Parks] Aqua Metropolis Osaka Seen from Parks

2021/06/07

Nakanoshima Park in the spring of 2020 presented a landscape entirely different from anything seen before.

Spring always arrives bringing change. In Japan, where temperature and rainfall vary greatly, the transition of nature through the four seasons is remarkably beautiful, and historical and cultural activities have been layered in accordance with that rhythm. Spring, in particular, is a season where expectations for a new life are felt. However, the changes brought by the spring of that year plunged daily life into a vortex of unrest. The more beautifully the flowers bloomed, the greater the damage to our hearts. Self-restraint was forced upon us, and the essential charm of human interaction was lost, especially in cities. On the other hand, however, we could also feel the budding of new charms.

The landscape of a park is composed of the natural foundation that supports it, the facilities built upon it by people, and the very sight of the people who use them; the totality of these elements is what we see. In the park, while avoiding large gatherings, people appeared as a new urban landscape—walking, exercising, enjoying meals, working on laptops, and even playing mahjong under the blue sky. These are actions intended to satisfy desires within a suppressed life, but if we set aside the social situation for a moment and look only at the scenery before us, it can be seen that the urban stage of the park is being utilized quite skillfully. Even amidst a pandemic, one can find new value in the park through the sight of people spending time as they please, gathering discretely while maintaining distance from one another. Dispersion is not alienation; rather, it creates meaning between those who are apart. Even without physical involvement, a new landscape of public life is emerging—one where people interact with others by sharing the same time and space.

In recent years, parks have focused solely on creating bustle, with an emphasis on collaboration between the public and private sectors. "Collaboration" (kyodo) refers to working together for the same purpose, where individuals with clear abilities or skills use them to work together toward a common goal. In contrast, "Common Use" (also kyodo, but with different nuances) refers to two or more people doing or using something together; there is no specific common purpose, and they do not necessarily seek out each other's abilities or skills. A public bath is a bath that everyone uses together, but it does not require people to join forces to achieve a common mission. Perhaps parks are originally such places of common use.

Even without going back to the Edo period, until quite recently, communities existed in Japanese society. Urban development, on the one hand, destroyed these communities and transformed the "common spaces" used by everyone into "collaborative spaces" where the public and private sectors work toward the same goal. However, the COVID-19 pandemic created a situation where individual lives had to spill out into the outdoors, making it clear that common spaces are indispensable even before collaborative ones. Parks are the last common spaces remaining in modern times. The cultural capacity of a society is revealed in actions that follow implicit considerations and unwritten rules for common use. In Nakanoshima Park during the pandemic, one could see a solidarity among people through common use that was different from mere bustle.

Regardless of time or place, waterfronts are spaces that form the backbone of a city. Among them, the waterfronts of cities called "Aqua Metropolises" hold special historical significance. Early modern Osaka flourished as the "Kitchen of the World" where people and goods gathered; the canals crisscrossing the city served not only for transportation and trade but also as places for human interaction, and events at the waterfront were the very activities of the city itself.

A characteristic of Osaka is that it was supported by the "private sector" (min). In many cities, waterfronts that play important roles in disaster prevention and industry have been governed by the "public sector" (kan). However, in early modern Osaka, it was the private citizens known as "machishu" who took charge of the waterfront. It is said that there were about 200 bridges in Osaka at that time, but only 12 were "Kogi-bashi" (official bridges) built by the Shogunate; all others were "Machi-bashi" built by the townspeople. The fact that the library and Central Public Hall standing on the Nakanoshima waterfront today were built through donations from the business community shows that this spirit was inherited even into the modern era.

The eastern end of Nakanoshima was reclaimed in the late Edo period and was popular as a recreational area for the public. With warehouse residences (kurayashiki) lining the surrounding area, it has been one of the centers of Osaka since the early modern period. This area was designated as a park in 1891. Furthermore, an expansion plan was approved in 1915, and the land was developed into the current shape of Nakanoshima Park. In 1921, a new city hall was completed, and Nakanoshima began to play a role as Osaka's civic center under the "public sector." Nakanoshima Park featured fountains, flower beds, a music hall, and tennis courts; with many boats floating on the water, it was a place with a modern atmosphere. This version of Osaka was called the "Venice of the East" and became a longed-for Aqua Metropolis.

At that time, Osaka expanded its city limits by incorporating surrounding towns and villages, and by 1925, it surpassed Tokyo in both area and population to become Japan's largest city, known as "Great Osaka." As industries such as spinning and steel flourished, the "Venice of the East" came to be called the "Manchester of the East," and the City of Water also became a City of Smoke. While the economy prospered greatly, problems such as land subsidence caused by pumping up large amounts of groundwater also came to light.

In this way, Osaka developed by swallowing both the pure and the muddy. In 1931, Osaka Castle was reconstructed through donations from citizens, and in 1937, Midosuji was completed as a new main street. In modern Osaka, the public and private sectors each played their roles to build the "urban dignity" that has been passed down to the present. The Osaka special issue of "Parks and Open Spaces" published in 1939 describes the ideal park planning of the time. Architect Yasushi Kataoka stated: "I hope to complete a central park with an effective area of at least 80,000 tsubo centered on Nakanoshima, making it a waterfront park that Osaka citizens can be proud of as an Aqua Metropolis park. At the same time, I wish to construct a large plaza where citizens can gather to hold festivals with cheers or solemn feelings of gratitude, making it a center for the National Spiritual Mobilization and the promotion of civic pride."

80,000 tsubo (approx. 26 hectares) is about 2.5 times the area of the current Nakanoshima Park. Had this been realized, the "Aqua Metropolis Park" would undoubtedly have become even more attractive as a park that fosters civic pride and of which Osaka citizens could be proud.

However, such ideal green space plans of the Great Osaka era were never realized. As can be seen from Kataoka's mention of "National Spiritual Mobilization," the raison d'être of parks subsequently changed significantly toward becoming spaces for air raid defense in preparation for war.

After the war, Osaka's waterfronts ceased to be the center of the city. The center of transportation for people and goods shifted from water to land, and many canals were filled with rubble for reconstruction. The beautiful canal network that was once called the City of Water became foul-smelling drainage ditches, turning into the backside of the city. The catalyst for a major change in this situation was the adoption of the urban regeneration project "Regeneration of Aqua Metropolis Osaka" in 2001. Public-private partnership efforts by the three parties of Osaka Prefecture, Osaka City, and the Osaka business community were promoted, and in the "Aqua Metropolis Osaka Regeneration Concept" formulated in 2003, the "Water Corridor" surrounding the city center in a rectangular shape was positioned as a priority area.

Urban parks account for about 40% of the public spaces in central Osaka where the water surface can be viewed, which is the highest proportion, even more than river spaces. They are particularly concentrated along the Okawa River from Nakanoshima Park to Minami-Temma Park and Sakuranomiya Park. Most of these were developed before the war, and there are almost no parks newly created through recent urban regeneration. Since the revision of the River Area Occupation Permit Criteria in 2011, unique private-sector waterfront spaces such as "Kitahama Terrace" have been created, and attempts to linearly connect the previously disconnected waterfront accessibility are progressing. However, recent examples of area-wide waterfront regeneration involving the development of protected land, such as "Minatomachi River Place" and "Hotarumachi," are few and have been in planning for decades. This illustrates the difficulty of fundamental waterfront space reorganization including the hinterland, showing that it is not easy to create parks on the waterfront in an era of advanced urbanization.

On the other hand, initiatives to increase the value of existing parks are also important. In 2006, Osaka City held a competition for the redevelopment of Nakanoshima Park, which was renewed in time for "Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009." Before that, Nakanoshima Park was a blank space—not an air pocket, but a "river pocket" left behind in the city center—where blue tarp tents lined up and citizens rarely visited. Through redevelopment, the rose garden, which had been rooted as a famous spot since the old days, was beautifully reborn, and the lawn area was given undulations that gracefully connect the northern and southern rivers, allowing the water surface to be viewed from anywhere one sits. By utilizing the potential of the land as an island, it has now become established as a place that citizens use on a daily basis.

It was the symbolic event of the Aqua Metropolis Osaka regeneration, "Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009," that impressed the value of such waterfront spaces, including Nakanoshima Park, upon the citizens. Art programs and workshops were developed at various locations along the Water Corridor, and a variety of programs were implemented for citizens to enjoy the redeveloped waterfront. A method of citizen participation centered on local activity groups was introduced, establishing a process driven by public-private partnerships. The hardware development that had previously been led by the public sector no longer ended there; private sector intentions were incorporated into the waterfront regeneration, laying the foundation for a continuous management system.

A major reason why such public-private partnerships could be developed was the accumulation of unique activities by the private sector from even before that time. Waterfront activities such as floating rafts for cherry blossom viewing or treating the top of a bridge as a live music venue began as guerrilla-like actions stemming from individual passions. Through the gradual introduction of social experiments and the construction of cooperative systems, these became formally recognized, and the individuality of the waterfront grew. The role of the public sector in the future Aqua Metropolis Osaka will likely lie in planning to spread the waterfront charm created by the private sector to the entire city.

There is a historical accumulation unique to Osaka regarding the perception of who is managing the city. Ryotaro Shiba, who loved Osaka throughout his life and continued to live there, described Osaka as "the most civic city in Japan." There is a spirit in this city that the town is not something created by someone else, but something we create ourselves. It accepts that various individualities clash and resonate with each other. Therefore, Osaka people feel close to the city of Osaka and also take pride in it. Parks, in particular, are one of the places that best represent the civic spirit of the citizens. The public life of a park reflects the relationship of trust between people and the city. It possesses the inclusiveness to accept free activities. In the city of Osaka, the charm of the people is reflected in the individuality of the place. Rather than maintaining order through discipline and restrictions, Osaka people expect a city where they can encounter something interesting, unique, and new. The city of Osaka exists as a place for such communication.

"β (Beta) Honmachibashi," which opens this summer in a park along the Higashiyokobori River, looks to be a facility where one can feel this free and intimate private-sector spirit of Osaka. It aims to be more than just a facility for food, drink, or boat transport; it seeks to develop business with a deep understanding of the social value of being located in a park. On a waterfront stage that was previously overlooked because an expressway covers the sky, new communication connecting the waterfront and the city, and people and places, is about to be born through a variety of private-sector programs.

In this way, the charm of Aqua Metropolis Osaka has expanded greatly with the public sector supporting private-sector initiatives. Tomoka Shibasaki, an author from Osaka, describes the charm of the city of Osaka in an essay titled "Osaka Connects" as follows: "While harsh environments such as over-concentration in Tokyo and economic stagnation continue, the flexibility of Osaka people, who suddenly struck out boldly as the 'Manchester of the East,' is still alive and well. I believe that today, rather than recklessly expanding in scale as in those days, it is a city with the potential to do interesting things and communicate flatly with various people and places, transcending the frameworks of cities or countries." It is people who create the charm of a city, both directly and indirectly. The charm of a city visited for the first time is influenced more by communication with the people encountered there than by the impressions formed through meals or souvenirs. Osaka people are adept at communicating flatly with various people and places as their own form of enjoyment. Urban planning is nothing other than direct and indirect continuous support for people creating the charm of the city. It is important whether the city side can accept the spirit of the people and reflect it in the image of the city. It is not just the people asserting themselves, nor is it just the city standing out. The charm of Aqua Metropolis Osaka is formed by people and the city becoming one.

Parks have always been important places for this purpose. The role played by parks in the history of the City of Water built by the public and private sectors has the potential to become greater than ever before. By combining greenery with the Water Corridor and expanding the network, the free and active movements of citizens will connect. I believe that Osaka will continue to deepen the communication between people and the city toward becoming a "City of Water and Greenery."