Cosmo Square (Sakishima) about 60 years ago and today

History of Cosmo Square (Sakishima)

Sakishima, jutting out into Osaka Bay, is an island that was reclaimed in order from the south side near the shore toward the north. In the frame of this location, that construction remains just as it was, as a shift of the waterline. In the c. 1928 photograph almost all of the frame is water, and in the 1984-86 photograph more than half is land. If you switch through the six eras up to 1984-86 in order from the oldest, the boundary between water and land moves north. The movement is not uniform, however. Lots that were first enclosed by seawalls and then filled inside are mixed with lots that kept their water for a long time while enclosed, and that difference appears as stages in the frame of each era.

The port of Osaka opened on top of sediment carried by the Yodo River and the Yamato River, and the water depth at the river mouths was not enough for large ships. Ships that could not come alongside the shore dropped anchor offshore, and their cargo was transferred to small boats and carried to the shore. The very water surface that was still being used in that way appears in the photograph of the oldest era. The only way to move port facilities offshore was to turn deep sea into land, and reclamation began on the south side near the shore. This location lies in the middle of the island made in that way.

A port where ships anchored offshore

The c. 1928 photograph is almost filled with a coarse-grained gray water surface. No land appears. From the upper half to the upper right, dozens of long, narrow white shapes form diagonal rows and scatterings. They are ships anchored offshore. A group facing the same way is mixed with a group that does not, suggesting that ships did not anchor just anywhere on the water. Toward the left there is a single thin arc, which turns back in a curve at the left edge and stretches north. It is a breakwater built in the sea. The frame also shows bands of light and dark along the seams of the photographs and a large dark rectangle in the lower half, so they need to be told apart from differences in the color of the water. Blank margins with no image remain at the bottom and right edges.

In the photograph from around 1936-42, the grain becomes finer, and even the ripples on the water and the shadows of clouds can be read. Even so, the frame is still water, and no piers or warehouses appear. In the upper half, anchored ships form diagonal rows as in the previous era, and in the upper left the thin white line of the breakwater remains in the same position, with the same turning shape. In the center, straight seam lines of the photographs cross, and in the lower left there is a large white missing area. Even if you go back and forth between the two old eras, the change is only in the arrangement of the ships and the fineness of the image, and not a single feature of the terrain has moved.

Water enclosed first

The 1961-69 photograph is placed at this location as the starting point for switching on the older side. The left half, across about half the width, is light gray, and there is no image in this range. The missing area is due to the photograph and has nothing to do with the terrain. The remaining right half is dense with information. Many anchored ships line up on the dark water at the top, and a thin white straight line runs horizontally through the middle. It is a seawall. A wide light gray surface continues below it, and its rough, sandy texture and spots can be read. A diagonal boundary runs from the center downward, dividing the dark water on the left from the bright surface on the right. In the upper right corner there is a group of white rectangular buildings, and along the right edge there is flat land divided by straight lines. This location is no longer only water even in this era.

The 1974-78 photograph is in color, and even the order of construction can be read. The right half to the lower right is earth-colored bare ground, with dark puddles that have not fully drained remaining inside. At the right edge, lines dividing lots and roads are drawn, and buildings have also come in. The left half is a purplish water surface, and at the top there is a dark navy water surface from another tile and the thin white line of the breakwater, curving in an arc from the upper left and turning back. The point to look at is the center. A thin embankment extends into the water in a dogleg shape, and at its tip there is a lot enclosed by a seawall shaped almost like a squared U, and the inside of the enclosure is still water. The order enclosure first, filling later lies side by side as two stages within a single frame.

Rows of warehouses and yards

In the 1979-83 photograph, the area from the center of the frame to the lower right has become land. Bright beige yards and lots spread out, warehouses with light blue roofs stand in rows on them, and buildings with reddish-brown roofs are mixed in. The right side has taken the form of blocks divided by roads, and shadows that look like round storage tanks can also be seen. A green band runs a little below the center, showing that there are planted lots within the developed ground. Meanwhile, the lot left of the center that was enclosed in the previous era still holds dark water within its enclosure. The upper half is still water, and among the anchored ships, orange hulls can also be made out.

The 1984-86 photograph has the most land of the six eras from c. 1928. From the center left downward, a pier densely lined with containers and buildings extends in a dogleg shape, and on its west side a green space with a pond has been made. In the center there is a bright yard with only lot lines drawn, below the center the dark water of a long, narrow inlet, in the lower right a group of warehouses with light blue roofs, and in the right half blocks complete with roads and buildings. Land reaches up toward the top of the frame, and the ground at this location is not water either. After this, the only past photograph is the single one from fiscal 2007, so the change up to then becomes a comparison that jumps ahead in one leap.

An island where the boundary remains

In the latest aerial photograph, the outline of the land almost overlaps with that of 1984-86. The change is in the content. Toward the top of the frame, where there were only lot lines, a ring road and blocks, green spaces and large facilities with flat roofs have come in, and in the blocks of the right half, brown surfaces that look like schoolyards and rows of apartment buildings line up. The inlet in the center remains as a water surface of the same shape, with warehouses facing each other on both banks. The green space and pond on the west side have not moved either. In the upper left and upper right corners there are rows of colored containers and gantry cranes, but those are places that were water in all six eras up to 1984-86. Only the edge of the island has been left as water, and a round dome floats on that water.

The milestones as a district are gathered in a few years of the 1990s. In 1994 the Asia and Pacific Trade Center opened, and the following year, 1995, a skyscraper more than 250 m tall was completed on the waterfront. In the 2010s this building became part of the government offices of Osaka Prefecture. In December 1997 the railway reached the northern tip of the island, Cosmo Square Station opened, and the island was connected by the same line to Nanko Port Town, which had opened earlier in the south. The dome floating in the sea is the building of the city's maritime museum, opened in 2000, and it remains on the sea as a structure even after closing in 2013.

The elevation profile breaks off only in the southern direction. Values exist for the center at 4.3 m, the north at 3 m, the east at 5.7 m and the west at 5.1 m, and for the south no source data for elevation has been created because it is water. A flat surface a few meters above sea level continues and then the values themselves disappear at its edge; this shape shows a position at the edge of reclaimed land. The reference point for official land prices (Chika Koji) is a warehouse site in Nanko-naka 1-chome, on the south of the same island and about 2 km from the location, and the record starts at 93,000 yen per square meter in 2011. Up to the 2026 publication, 89,000 yen in 2013 is the lowest, and from there it keeps rising, with 198,000 yen in 2026 the highest. To know how far flooding and tsunami are assumed to reach, the hazard map of the City of Osaka is a useful reference.