Tennoji Zoo
Historic zoo of roaring big cats and rare kiwi, open on park grounds since nineteen fifteen.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Tennoji Zoo in Osaka, open since 1915, turns on October 1943, when keeper Hara Haruji carried a plate of poisoned meat toward a leopard's cage under orders from wartime officials fearing bombed-open cages might loose dangerous animals into the city. You'll hear how twenty-six animals across the zoo, bears, lions, tigers, wolves, hyenas, a polar bear, were marked for death that autumn, and how the leopard alone would not eat what Hara offered. The guide follows what Hara carried with him for the rest of his life.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Tennoji Park
Hilltop mound and park where rival warlords once camped, now with a zoo and botanical garden.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi Statue
Five-meter bronze warlord in armor and flowing cloak, recast from photographs after the original was melted for wartime metal.
Osaka Museum of Natural History
Natural history museum with whale skeletons, dinosaur fossils, and a life-size Naumann's elephant.