is a residential district surrounding Jūsō Station, in Yodogawa-ku, Osaka, Japan. Known primarily for classic Osaka cuisine, and adjacent

nightclub A nightclub or dance club is a club that is open at night, usually for drinking, dancing and other entertainment. Nightclubs often have a Bar (establishment), bar and discotheque (usually simply known as disco) with a dance floor, laser lighti ...

and red light districts, the neighborhood lies to the northeast of Osaka's Kita-ku central business district. The core of the area is Jūsō Station, the hub station of the

Hankyu Railway , trading as , is a Japanese private railway company that provides commuter and interurban service to the northern Kansai region. It is one of the flagship properties of Hankyu Hanshin Holdings Inc., in turn part of the Hankyu Hanshin Toho Gr ...

system. The area typifies the unique culture of Osaka. Situated across the

Yodo River The , also called the Seta River (瀬田川 ''Seta-gawa'') and the Uji River (宇治川 ''Uji-gawa'') at portions of its route, is the principal river in Osaka Prefecture on Honshu, Japan. The source of the river is Lake Biwa in Shiga Prefectur ...

from central Osaka, Jūsō is centrally located for easy access by Hankyu Railway lines to other major

Kansai The or the lies in the southern-central region of Japan's main island Honshū. The region includes the prefectures of Nara, Wakayama, Kyoto, Osaka, Hyōgo and Shiga, often also Mie, sometimes Fukui, Tokushima and Tottori. The metropoli ...

cities: 24 minutes to

Kobe Kobe ( ; , ), officially , is the capital city of Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan. With a population of around 1.5 million, Kobe is Japan's List of Japanese cities by population, seventh-largest city and the third-largest port city after Port of Toky ...

( Kobe-Sannomiya Station) to the west and 40 minutes to

Kyoto Kyoto ( or ; Japanese language, Japanese: , ''Kyōto'' ), officially , is the capital city of Kyoto Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan's largest and most populous island of Honshu. , the city had a population of 1.46 million, making it t ...

( Kawaramachi Station) to the northeast. Jūsō is well known for a variety of high-quality classic Osaka cuisine including

okonomiyaki is a Japanese ''teppanyaki'' savory pancake dish consisting of wheat flour batter and other ingredients (mixed, or as toppings) cooked on a '' teppan'' (flat griddle). Common additions include cabbage, meat, and seafood, and toppings include ...

, negiyaki, and

takoyaki Takoyaki ( or ) is a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter (cooking), batter and cooked in a special molded pan. It is typically filled with minced or diced octopus as food, octopus (''tako''), tempura scraps (''tenkasu' ...

shops, as well as a high concentration of nightclubs. In August every year, a massive fireworks celebration takes place beside the Yodo River; the people who attend this celebration often wear traditional

yukata A is an unlined cotton summer kimono, worn in casual settings such as summer festivals and to nearby bathhouses. The name is translated literally as "bathing cloth" and originally were worn as bathrobes; their modern use is much broader, and ar ...

s and wooden sandals.

Notable people from Jūsō

* Yukari Taki, Japanese actress and ''

tarento Television personalities in Japan, known as in Japanese, are celebrities who regularly appear in mass media in Japan, especially as panelists on variety shows. During the Golden Age of Hollywood, bankable stars in the United States were descri ...

History

The name ''Jūsō'' is written with the

kanji are logographic Chinese characters, adapted from Chinese family of scripts, Chinese script, used in the writing of Japanese language, Japanese. They were made a major part of the Japanese writing system during the time of Old Japanese and are ...

for "thirteen." One theory as the origin of the name states that it was originally the thirteenth stop on the

going from

Osaka Bay Osaka Bay (大阪湾 ''Ōsaka-wan'' ) is a bay in western Japan. As an eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea, it is separated from the Pacific Ocean by the Kii Channel and from the neighbor western part of the Inland Sea by the Akashi Strait. I ...

. A less popular theory holds that the name originated in numbering under the old land allocation system. Jūsō Station opened in 1910 as a stop on the Minoo-Arima Electric Railway (now the

Hankyu Takarazuka Line The is a Japanese railway line operated by the private railway operator Hankyu Railway. It connects Umeda Station in downtown Osaka with Takarazuka Station (Hankyu), Takarazuka Station in Takarazuka, Hyogo. It has a branch line, the Hankyu M ...

). The area became part of Osaka City in 1925. The Osaka government constructed the Juso Bridge across the Yodogawa River in 1932.

Steven Seagal Steven Frederic Seagal ( ; born April 10, 1952) is an American actor, producer, screenwriter, martial artist, and musician. A 7th-Dan (rank), dan Black belt (martial arts), black belt in aikido, he began his adult life as a martial arts instru ...

aikido Aikido ( , , , ) is a gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art which is split into many different styles including Iwama Ryu, Iwama Shin Shin Aiki Shuren Kai, Shodokan Aikido, Yoshinkan, Renshinkai, Aikikai, and Ki Aikido. Aikido is now practic ...

dojo, Tenshin Aikido, opened in Juso in 1975 and was the first dojo operated by a foreigner in Japan. Juso was one of the Osaka locations used in the 1989

Ridley Scott Sir Ridley Scott (born 30 November 1937) is an English film director and producer. He directs films in the Science fiction film, science fiction, Crime film, crime, and historical drama, historical epic genres, with an atmospheric and highly co ...

film '' Black Rain'': in the scene shot in Juso,

Michael Douglas Michael Kirk Douglas (born September 25, 1944) is an American actor and film producer. He has received numerous accolades, including two Academy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, a Primetime Emmy Award, the Cecil B. DeMille Award, and the ...

and Andy Garcia are surrounded by a biker gang while walking to their hotel after dinner in

Dōtonbori is a district in Osaka, Japan. Known as one of Osaka's principal tourist and nightlife areas, the area runs along the Dōtonbori canal from Dōtonboribashi Bridge to Nipponbashi, Nipponbashi Bridge in the Namba district of the city's Chūō-ku, O ...

(despite the fact that Juso and Dotonbori are about seven kilometers apart).

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Juso Geography of Osaka Red-light districts in Japan Tourist attractions in Osaka