History
The current Tenjimbashisuji 6-chome Station opened underground when the Osaka Metro Sakaisuji Line began through services with the Hankyu Senri Line, replacing the older Hankyu Tenjinbashi Station that had stood on the site since 15 October 1925. The original station opened as the Osaka terminus of the Shinkeihan Railway and was celebrated as one of the Kansai region's first elevated stations; the seven-storey 1926 building, modelled on a Pacific Electric station in the United States, was an early Japanese example of a department-store-style terminal. The Hankyu building above the subway survived until demolition in 2010 to make way for the Geo Tower Tenroku residential high-rise.
History summarized from Japanese & English Wikipedia · last reviewed 2026-06-09.
Where the English and Japanese sources differ, this account follows the Japanese source.
Notes
During construction of the Tanimachi Line on 8 April 1970 a gas leak ignited at this site, killing 79 people, injuring 420, and destroying 495 buildings — one of the deadliest urban accidents in postwar Japan.