Billiken`s Tower Traditional Geocache
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In 1908, Florence Pretz, an art teacher and illustrator in Kansas City, Mo., received a patent for her version of an ancient Asian figure which had appeared mysteriously in her dream. This bizarre statue became quite a hit in the teens and twenties in both the United States and Japan, and this little shrine was built in Billiken`s honor in Osaka's Shinsekai district. In the tower, once the highest and most powerful Osaka landmark, the Billiken was crated up and forgotten in a stairwell. One day the crate falls and the statue`s crate smashed, freeing its spirit.
If Billiken, seems to have long since been forgotten again, so too have old entertainment districts like this Shinsekai (New Century). Much like New York's Coney Island or Tokyo's Asakusa, places once popular to go to enjoy the thrills of fashion, to celebrate the new, like the movies, music and once long upon a time, the Billiken. These entertainment areas now have a nostalgia of of their own, and like magic, disappearing before our eyes.
As featured in the 1996 movie: Billiken, Osakaian Sakamoto Junji, offers a portrait of the down and dirty culture of Shinsekai. In the movie, the existence of the region itself goes under threat as real estate developers push forward to tear down Shinsekai and its symbol, the Tsutenkaku, as their mighty effort to bring the 2004 Olympics to Osaka.
In defense, the head of the Tsutenkaku tries a couple of absurd strategies to revive the popularity of the tower. He finally succeeds by reinstalling the long forgotten statue of Billiken. But Billiken causes an uproar by fulfilling even the most ridiculous wishes.
Billiken's eventual triumph is also a bit of an accident, which only adds to the portrait of Shinsekai as best when it focuses on the area's communal atmosphere, that strange but honest humanity of its collection of Osaka people.
Here, being out-of-fashion is good again, and Japanese religion is neither Zen nor Shinto, but the belief in hometown, even if it is made up of cheap gangsters, homeless people, fakirs, and not quite well known film makers like Sakamoto Junji.
Exiting Ebisucho station k18, Sakaitsuji line, South exit 3, gets you a dramatic view of your objective.
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