Dotonbori's origin story reads like a historical novel with an unreliable narrator. In 1612, canal administrator Nariyasu Doton began digging a waterway along the southern edge of Osaka. He was joined by Yasui Jihe, Yasui Kuhe, and Hirano Tojiro. Then the Siege of Osaka intervened: Yasui Jihe died of illness, and Nariyasu Doton was killed in summer 1615, having fought on the losing side for Toyotomi Hideyori. Yasui Kuhe and Hirano Tojiro finished the canal by September 1615. The new lord of Osaka Castle, Matsudaira Tadaaki, named it Dotonbori -- 'bori' from 'hori,' meaning canal -- honoring the man who started it, even though he had been the enemy. Over the centuries, the story was revised to credit a fictional local entrepreneur named Yasui Doton. A stone monument was erected for this invented figure in 1915. It took the 1965 Dotonbori Trial, a legal dispute over canal land ownership, to determine from Yasui family records that Yasui Doton never existed.

Osaka's relationship with food is summed up in a single word: kuidaore -- to ruin yourself through extravagant spending on eating, or more bluntly, 'eat until you drop.' The concept is embedded in a proverb that contrasts Kyoto's obsession with clothing against Osaka's devotion to cuisine. In Dotonbori, kuidaore is not just philosophy but business model. The district's restaurants span decades and disciplines: Hariju has served Japanese beef since 1924, Imai has made udon since 1946, and three Kinryu Ramen locations -- one at each end of the street and one in the middle -- have dispensed noodles around the clock since 1982, seating customers on tatami mats beneath golden dragon billboards. The Kani Doraku crab restaurant opened in 1962, its original motorized crab sign installed in 1960. At takoyaki stands that trace their origins to the 1970s, the selling point is the size of the octopus chunks. The now-closed Cui-daore restaurant, an eight-story building offering a different Osaka specialty on each floor, was founded in 1949 and once claimed to be the world's largest restaurant.

Dotonbori's signage is not advertising so much as architecture. The Glico Man -- a runner crossing a finish line against a blue track -- was first installed in 1935 as a symbol of Glico candy. The current version, the sixth iteration, switched from neon to LEDs in October 2014. The sign gets customized for major events: World Cup matches, Hanshin Tigers victories, and in 2020, it cycled every fifteen minutes to honor Takuma Sato's second Indy 500 win. Nearby, Kuidaore Taro, a mechanical drum-playing clown installed in 1950, once drew visiting sumo wrestlers every March for photo opportunities. The Ebisu Tower ferris wheel, built into the facade of a Don Quijote discount store, shut down in June 2008 after cracks were found in a rail and did not reopen until January 2018. Two illuminated gateway signs arch over each end of Dotonbori Street, framing the district in animated neon. The effect after dark is overwhelming -- a continuous wall of moving light, video screens, and three-dimensional figures that makes the canal's water shimmer with reflected color.

Ebisubashi bridge, just east of the Glico Man sign, was originally built to provide access to Ebisu Shrine. It became famous for an entirely different reason: the Curse of the Colonel. According to legend, Hanshin Tigers fans celebrating the team's 1985 Japan Series championship threw a Colonel Sanders statue from a nearby KFC into the Dotonbori canal. The Tigers then went decades without winning the Japan Series again. The statue was recovered from the canal's muddy bottom, but the curse was not considered broken until 2023, when the Tigers finally won the Japan Series once more. The bridge itself serves as Dotonbori's social crossroads, linking the Shinsaibashi-suji and Ebisubashi-suji shopping districts. Its nicknames tell the story: foreigners call it nanpa-bashi, locals call it hikkake-bashi -- 'the pulling bridge' -- both terms referencing its role as a place where people meet.

Dotonbori's visual intensity has made it irresistible to creators across media. The fictional district of Sotenbori in Sega's Yakuza video game series is modeled directly on Dotonbori's streets and signage. The anime Kill la Kill placed its Nudist Beach headquarters beneath the canal. John Wick: Chapter 4 filmed sequences along its neon-lit corridors. The racing game Asphalt 9 sends players tearing through its streets. From the air, Dotonbori reads as a narrow seam of density running east-west through Osaka's Chuo ward -- the canal a dark ribbon flanked by the compressed energy of one of Japan's most visited entertainment strips, a district that has been drawing crowds since the Edo period and shows no sign of dimming its lights.