Tsuyu no Tenjinsha, known to everyone as Ohatsu Tenjin, is a quiet old shrine hidden among the bars and offices just south of Umeda. It is more than a thousand years old, but its fame rests on a single tragedy: in 1703 a courtesan named Ohatsu and her lover Tokubei died here in a double suicide, a story the playwright Chikamatsu turned into the bunraku and kabuki classic Sonezaki Shinju ("The Love Suicides at Sonezaki") within weeks.
A bronze statue of the lovers stands in the grounds, and the shrine has become a place to pray for love and good relationships. The narrow lanes around it, Ohatsu Tenjin-dori, are lined with cheap restaurants and standing bars — a pocket of old Osaka a few minutes from the station crowds.