What’s So Great About Osaka, Kyoto, and Nara?
When you come to Osaka, Kyoto, Kobe, or Nara, most likely you’re going to land at Kansai International Airport. You’re also going to hear the word Kansai quite a bit, and sometimes even the word Kinki.
Now, what is Kansai? Where is Kansai? What does it mean? And what is the history behind it?
You’re In Kansai
When you land at Kansai airport, you’ve just entered the Kansai region. When you’re in Osaka. When you’re checking out the Dotonbori, going to Osaka Castle. When you’re climbing up through the red gates in Fushimi Inari up in Kyoto or looking at the bamboo forest. When you’re hanging out at the waterfront in Kobe or going to see the big Buddha in Nara. You’re in the Kansai region.
What Does Kansai Mean?
But what does Kansai mean? Well, the word Kansai is made up of two kanji characters. There’s kan (関), which means a checkpoint or barrier, and sai (西), which means West.
So basically, Kansai means “West of the barrier”. In ancient Japan, the area was divided up into regions, and there were barriers in between. There were checkpoints, and this area was West of the checkpoint.
What Is Kansai?
Kansai is Osaka, with its lively people, its food, its neon lights, the big castle. Kansai is Kyoto, with its history, its temples, its shrines, its old streets. Kansai is Nara, with the big Buddha, the deer, and Kasuga Shrine. Kansai is Kobe, the old port town, and where the first foreigners coming to Japan came in through Kobe.
Kansai is also Shiga. It’s a large prefecture, with a lot of nature, and the huge Biwa Lake. And Kansai is down below us here, Wakayama, where you’ve got little fishing villages, and Koya Mountain.
Kansai Has a Lot of History
Kyoto and Nara are the ancient capitals. In fact, Nara is the very first permanent capital back in the 8th century. For most of the 8th century, Nara was the capital. It was the center of culture, politics, art, and Buddhism. In fact, it became the center of Buddhism and the big, huge temple you see there, Todaiji Temple, and the huge Buddha inside it.
Kyoto was the second permanent capital. It was for over a thousand years, right up until 1869, when the capital was moved up to what is now Tokyo. Kyoto is still considered the cultural capital of Japan.
Osaka also has a lot of history, over 1400 years of history. Back in the 5th century, it was the gateway for trade with China and Korea. Now, it’s gone from being a trading area to a huge commercial hub in Japan. In fact, it’s always been a merchant city, so it’s still very merchant-based. There is a special ceremony we have January 10th every year, where we go to see Lord Ebisu and pray for good business.
Prevalence of the Word “Kansai”
You’ll hear the word Kansai used in quite a few things, like Kansai people. Kansai people are more talkative, more direct, more fun than Tokyo people – especially Osaka, which has always been a merchant town, so people have been very forward, very outgoing.
Kansai food. In Osaka, it’s okonomiyaki, which is the savory pancake. Takoyaki, are the balls with octopus inside them. Kushikatsu is anything on a skewer, battered, breaded, and deep-fried. There’s also the very Kyoto foods, like yudofu, which is a simmered tofu. Or yuba, which is actually the skin that forms on top when they’re making tofu, and it’s very much a part of the Buddhist vegetarian cuisine, or shojin rori, as they call it.
There’s also Kansai dialect, or Kansai-ben in Japanese. It’s quite different from the way people speak up in Tokyo. In fact, when I’m up in Tokyo, people will know right away when I speak Japanese, that I’m from Osaka.
What’s Kinki?
And then what about that other word you’re going to hear, Kinki? Now, that again is made up of two kanjis, kin (近), which means near or close, and ki (畿), which means the capital region. Now remember, both Nara and Kyoto were the ancient capitals, so the area around here was the area close to the capitals, or the Kinki area.
So we’ve got Kansai, “West of the barrier”, and kinki, “near the capital”, but basically it’s the same region.
The Problem With Kinki
Now, of course, Kinki’s had some fun connotations in English, and I remember when we first came here in 1996, we saw this bus go by. It was a bus tour company. It was called Kinki Bus Tours, and we just had to go, “Hmm? I wonder what kind of tours those are?” because we didn’t know about the Kinki region yet. All we saw was the word Kinki.
Because of that, because of the confusion it has caused, there has been some changes, like Kinki University recently became Kindai, which is a mixture of kin and dai for daigaku, which means university. Also the famous boy band, the Kinki Kids. These guys were established back in 1997. They made a big debut, and they’ve been famous as the Kinki Kids for a long time, but again, they’ve also changed their name to Domoto, which is just a family name.
Enjoying the Kansai Region
As a traveler in the Kansai region, what’s really nice is that all the major cities you want to see are close to each other. So you can use Osaka like a base, and from there it’s one hour to Nara, one hour to Kyoto, one hour over to Kobe. Fantastic for day trips.
All right, I hope you’ve enjoyed learning about Kansai and Kinki, and what it all means, and the history behind it. Now, if you have any questions, please post them in the comments down below. It doesn’t have to be about Kansai, it could be about anything about coming to the Kansai area. I’m happy to answer those. I read all the comments, like to answer them, and if you’d like, I’ll shoot you a video answering your questions.
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