Kitamido

This guide to Kitamido in Osaka opens on the night of March 13, 1945, when Allied firebombs reduced this Hongan-ji hall, standing since the 1590s, to ash. It follows the temple's earlier history, from Emperor Meiji's stay within its walls to a merchant's choice of this hall for the first meeting of Osaka's chamber of commerce, and traces how the boulevard Midosuji got its name from this temple and its southern twin. Listen for how many tries the postwar rebuilding took before it held.