OSAKA · MACHI GUIDETsuruhashi & Ikuno Koreatown

The history of Ikuno Koreatown actually begins far earlier than the modern Korean community — much further back. In ancient times this area was a land called "Kudara-no". Many settlers who came across from the Korean Peninsula lived here, a place that brought the technology and culture of the continent to Osaka.

The nearby old place name "Ikaino" is also said to derive from the settlers raising pigs here. Literally, "the field where pigs are kept." For 1,500 years, this land has been connected to the far side of the sea.

In other words, Koreatown is not a neighborhood that sprang up from nothing after the war. A land of ancient arrivals, made denser by modern migration layered on top — that two-layered structure is what gives this neighborhood its depth. When you think that so much time is stacked up beneath the arcade you are walking through, even buying a single jar of kimchi feels a little different.

There are two main modern reasons why people from the Korean Peninsula gathered in Ikuno. One is the Hiranogawa River improvement works of the Taisho era. It was a large project to dig the meandering Hiranogawa straight, and many people from the Korean Peninsula gathered here as its labor force.

The other is a single scheduled ship. In the early 1920s, a regular route connecting Osaka and Jeju Island in Korea, the ship named "Kimigayo Maru," began service. This ship created the flow of people from Jeju Island to Osaka. The particularly large number of people from Jeju Island in Ikuno's Koreatown is due to this route.

After the war, people also fled here from the turmoil of the Jeju Uprising (from 1948) on Jeju Island, and the community grew denser still. In the early Showa era a "Korean market" arose naturally, and it became the prototype of today's Koreatown. In 1993, the "Kudara Gate" was built on Miyukidori, and the neighborhood began to call itself "Koreatown" in earnest. The name of the ancient "Kudara-no" thus returned as the name of a gate at the end of the 20th century.

Today, along roughly 500 meters east to west, the Miyukidori shopping street lines up more than 100 shops, and over two million people visit each year. If you walk from a room in this area, Koreatown becomes not a "tourist site" but a "neighborhood shopping street."

Adjoining the western edge of Koreatown stands Miyukinomori Tenjingu. According to shrine tradition, it was founded in the 2nd year of Emperor Hanzei's reign (406), making it a very old shrine.

The origin of the shrine's name resonates well with this location. It is said that Emperor Nintoku made a "miyuki" — an imperial visit — to this place and rested in this forest, which is why it came to be called "the Forest of the Imperial Visit." That same Emperor Nintoku is enshrined here as its deity. In other words, on the land of the settlers stands a shrine to the emperor said to have inspected those settlers.

In 2009, a monument inscribed with the "Naniwazu Poem" was erected on the grounds. It is a rare monument bearing both the man'yogana of the Japanese text and Hangul. This poem is said to have been composed by Dr. Wani, who came across from Baekje, to celebrate Emperor Nintoku's accession. On the land of arrivals stands a monument to a poem said to have been composed by a settler, with Japanese and Korean side by side — and the meaning of this shrine standing right next to Koreatown starts to come into view.

Tsuruhashi is a terminal where three operators gather — the JR Osaka Loop Line, the Kintetsu Railway, and the Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line. Step out of the ticket gates and you are immediately enveloped in the smell of yakiniku and kimchi.

The origin of Tsuruhashi's market lies in the postwar black market. Beneath and around the elevated railway tracks, a quarter of narrow passages tangled together like a maze still remains today. On the east side of the station is a wholesale market handling fresh fish; on the southwest side is the Korai Market. It has long been called a "treasure house of food," ranked alongside Kuromon Market.

There is a reason yakiniku restaurants cluster so densely here. Starting from the postwar black market, the community of Koreans in Japan and the culture of meat and offal distribution and cooking took root in this land. One of the origins of Kansai's yakiniku culture lies around this station.

What is interesting is that the smell of yakiniku itself, drifting around the Kintetsu platforms, has been chosen for the Ministry of the Environment's "100 Best Fragrant Landscapes." Among the "fragrant landscapes worth preserving" selected by the state, the smell of yakiniku at a station is included — this is probably one of the very few places in the whole country. Stay in this area and you will greet the morning in that smell and return home to it at night.

Yakiniku and Koreatown are not the only food this area has to offer. Teradacho, one stop south of Tsuruhashi on the Loop Line, is a downtown "food town" known since long ago. It is known in particular for several famous eel restaurants gathered together, with old-fashioned shops that grill eel over charcoal to order lined up near the station. In a residential neighborhood far removed from the bustle of tourist sites, this is an area where you can encounter flavors long loved by locals.

One more stop away, Momodani — also a gateway to Koreatown — has the Momodani Ekimae Shopping Street. Step out the south exit of JR Momodani Station and you can go straight from under the rail overpass into the arcade, so you can walk without getting wet even on a rainy day. Along a street of about 500 meters, roughly 60 shops line up, from restaurants and groceries to daily goods — a good old downtown shopping street.

What makes this area interesting is that the yakiniku and offal of Tsuruhashi, the Korean cuisine of Koreatown, the eel of Teradacho, and the downtown shopping street of Momodani — several layers of Osaka's "food" overlap within walking distance. Stay around here and you can eat your way through it as if living here, rather than dropping by between sightseeing. You can view the individual famous shops in "Highlights of This Area" below.

The Miyukidori shopping street, exactly midway between Tsuruhashi Station and Momodani Station, is Ikuno Koreatown. You can head there on foot from either station. The nearest station and walking time for each room are listed on the individual pages.

The area around Tsuruhashi Station is known as a place where yakiniku restaurants cluster densely. We do not list recommendations for specific shops, but you can choose as you walk around the station. Business hours differ by shop.

To Namba it is a few minutes on the Osaka Metro Sennichimae Line or the Kintetsu; to Tennoji it is a few minutes on the JR Osaka Loop Line.

From Tsuruhashi you can reach Nara on the Kintetsu with no transfer. This area makes it easy to combine walking around Osaka with visiting the temples and shrines of Nara in a single stay.

This area centers on whole-house rentals, and many rooms come with a kitchen. Some guests buy ingredients at the markets of Tsuruhashi or Ikuno and cook. Please check the facilities on each room's page.

It varies by room, but among whole-house rentals there are rooms that can accommodate stays for families and groups. You can filter and search by number of guests.

The area around the station stays lively into the night, but some rooms are located one street into the residential neighborhood. If you want to spend your time quietly, please choose a room a little away from the busy quarter.

The Tsuruhashi market has tangled passages, but the Miyukidori shopping street is a single, easy-to-follow street. Knowing how the neighborhood came to be makes a food crawl all the more enjoyable.