梅田［Umeda］

Born: over 200 years ago

Located in: Kita Ward

Total: 36600

Symbol: red plum, red rose, and coconut

Umeda is a major commercial, business, shopping and entertainment district in Kita-ku, Osaka, Japan, where the city's main northern railway termini (Ōsaka Station, Umeda Station) are located.

The district's name means "plum field". Umeda was historically called Umeda Haka (梅田墓, Umeda Grave), because it was one of the seven largest cemeteries of Osaka from the Edo period (1603–1868) until the first twenty years of the Meiji period (1868–1912). in 2020, survey teams for the Umekita redevelopment project discovered ancient burial remains of over 1,500 people. experts say these remains were of commoners, not the aristocracy. they used several burial styles, both cremated as well as buried with enclosed wooden caskets, barrel-shaped open containers and earthenware coffins called kameganbo (turtle caskets). they found burial items such as pipes, clay dolls, rokusenmon (a set of six coins to pay passage across the Sanzu River which separates the world of the living and the afterlife) and juzudama (rosary-style prayer beads). a stone wall separated a mass grave with skeletons that were only covered by soil. these are suspected to have died in a plague.

until the 1870s, the area which is now Umeda was agricultural land. the area was reclaimed and filled in by the prefectural government in the 1870s to support the creation of the first Osaka Station.

The word "Umeda" was previously written with different kanji characters; 埋田 (English: "buried field") to reflect this history. the name was changed to 梅田 (English: "plum field") without altering the pronunciation, likely due to negative connotations with the previous characters.

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