Nanbayasakajinja Shrine

Long known as the 'Naniwa Lower Shrine' and revered as the local guardian deity of the Naniwa area, it once boasted a grand seven-hall complex with 12 sub-temples before declining after war fires. It was abolished as a temple under Meiji-era Buddhist-Shinto separation, and even its shrine buildings burned in the 1945 air raids; today's structures were rebuilt after the war. Its most striking feature is a massive ema hall shaped like a giant lion's head, standing 12m tall, 11m wide, and 10m deep. The tug-of-war ritual held every third Sunday of January reenacts the legend of the deity Susanoo defeating the eight-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi to relieve the people's suffering, and was designated Osaka City's first intangible folk cultural property in 2001.