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Doshomachi
Dōshōmachi is an area in Chūō Ward, Osaka City, lined with pharmaceutical companies and, together with Nihonbashi-Honchō in Chūō Ward, Tokyo, is known as one of Japan’s leading “medicine towns.” The area features the “Dōshōmachi Museum Street,” which has multiple facilities exhibiting medical and pharmaceutical culture, the Sukunahikona Shrine dedicated to the gods of health and medicine, and the former Konishi family residence, designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Major pharmaceutical companies such as Takeda Pharmaceutical, Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma, and Shionogi have offices here. The origin of the name “Dōshōmachi” is said to come either from a former temple called Dōshōji or from the name of an early Edo-period pharmacologist, Kitayama Dōshū. The area became known as a medicine center after a Sakai merchant, Konishi Kichirōemon, opened a drug shop here. These merchants formed the shogunate-approved trade guild “Yakushu Nakagai Nakama,” gaining the privilege of testing and pricing not only imported medicines from Qing China and the Netherlands but also domestically sourced herbal drugs, and distributing them nationwide.
Address
Dōshōmachi, Chūō-ku, Osaka, Osaka Prefecture
Access
Higobashi Station (Osaka Metro Yotsubashi Line)
