For the past several years, every time I have visited this place, its appearance has undergone a major transformation, and it has become a multi-layered labyrinth for me, a person with a poor sense of direction.
This is JR Osaka Station.
I was able to squeeze in a little time for a photo walk in Osaka while working in the Kansai region, so I went to Osaka Station West Exit, a new area that has been expanded again in that Osaka Station dungeon.
The LUMIX GF10 is a strong ally for this kind of “I want to take pictures while I’m at it” trip.
The new “West Exit” was opened in July this year at a place where you might think, “Oh, you have to enter and exit from such and such a place” further west of the “Sakurabashi Exit, which used to be the west entrance to Osaka Station.
The yellow exit sign can be seen at the end of the platform, which looks as if it has been forcibly extended from the west end of the platform.
The station itself has been greatly expanded since the former Umeda Freight Station, which was originally located to the northwest of Osaka Station, was combined as “Osaka East Line”, and the west exit was established in a corner of the expanded combined zone. This time, I was interested in this object installed on the first floor of Innogate Osaka, a new station building directly connected to the west exit.
“The Fountain Boy” is a stained glass work by Hirohiko Araki based on the old symbol of Osaka Station. As expected, it is quite cool!
Even though I am not an art expert, I thought it would be nice to see it since Mr. Araki is a very big name cartoonist…or so it seems to me.
The plan is to develop such public artworks throughout the area in the future, and it seems that this is the first of many such works.
This is the first of many such public artworks to be created in the area, and we hope to see more of them in the future.
