Osaka
or OZAKA, an important city of Central Japan, at the head of the gulf of the same name. The city covers an area of about 8 square miles and is intersected with canals. Its fine castle, the stones of whose walls are of astonishing size, was constructed by Hideyoshi's orders in 1583, and the palace, built afterward in its precincts and destroyed in 1868, was perhaps the most magnificent structure in Japan. Osaka is the great commercial center of the empire, and the headquarters of the rice and tea trade. Its port does not admit of the entrance of large vessels. There is a foreign settlement, mostly occupied by missionaries. Osaka was ravaged by destructive fires in 1910 and 1912. Pop. about 1,500,000.