A ten-storey museum immediately adjacent to Osaka Castle that traces the city's history from the Naniwa Palace era (7th century) through the mercantile Edo period to the modern city. The top floor — reached by a glass lift — is at the same level as the original floor of the Naniwa Palace, and the museum's designers positioned the windows so that visitors stand at the exact height the palace floor would have been, looking out over the excavated foundations still visible in the ground below.
The displays are exceptionally well designed for an international visitor: reconstructed period streetscapes, scale models of the castle, and detailed exhibits on the Edo-period rice trading system that made Osaka the financial capital of Japan. The building also has good views of the castle from its upper floors. A combined entry covering this museum and the castle keep saves money.