Qualla: Tower of the Sun https://qualla.com/tower-of-the-sun en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:39 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/0/q/tower-of-the-sun-wp/gallery-1.jpg Qualla: Tower of the Sun https://qualla.com/tower-of-the-sun Tower of the Sun: Introduction https://qualla.com/tower-of-the-sun/ Photo credit 663highland, CC BY 2.5. Three faces stare out from a single white body rising 70 meters above a suburban park in Suita, Osaka. One looks forward with wide, unblinking eyes. One gleams gold at the summit, gazing skyward. One lurks on the back, black and ancient, turned toward what has already passed. The Tower of the Sun was supposed to be temporary -- a centerpiece for Expo '70 that would come down when the fair ended. Instead, Taro Okamoto's defiant, bizarre, magnificent sculpture refused to go away. More than fifty years later, it remains the most recognizable landmark in Osaka Prefecture, designated a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2020, and more beloved now than the day it was built.

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Image: 663highland | CC BY 2.5

]]> Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/0/q/tower-of-the-sun-wp/xn0q-tower-of-the-sun-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Tower of the Sun: The Artist Who Punched Through the Roof https://qualla.com/tower-of-the-sun/ Photo credit takato marui, CC BY-SA 2.0. The 1970 World Exposition in Osaka was Japan's declaration to the world that it had arrived as a modern technological power. The theme was "Progress and Harmony for Mankind," and the centerpiece was architect Kenzo Tange's enormous Festival Plaza, sheltered beneath a futuristic c...

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Image: takato marui | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/0/q/tower-of-the-sun-wp/xn0q-tower-of-the-sun-the-artist-who-punched-through-the-roof.mp3 0:06 2 full Tower of the Sun: Three Faces, Four Suns https://qualla.com/tower-of-the-sun/ Photo credit Vetalapancavimsatika, CC BY-SA 4.0. Okamoto designed the tower to represent the full sweep of time. The Face of the Sun, centered on the front of the white body, represents the present -- its expression alert, confrontational, impossible to ignore. At the summit, the 11-meter-wide Golden Mask represents the future,...

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Image: Vetalapancavimsatika | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/0/q/tower-of-the-sun-wp/xn0q-tower-of-the-sun-three-faces-four-suns.mp3 0:06 3 full Tower of the Sun: The Bloodstream Inside https://qualla.com/tower-of-the-sun/ Photo credit bm.iphone, CC BY 2.0. Step inside the tower and you enter a different world. The interior houses the Tree of Life, a 41-meter-tall sculpture representing the evolution of all living things. Models of 292 organisms climb the trunk and branches -- glowing amoebas at the base, fish and reptiles on the lo...

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Image: bm.iphone | CC BY 2.0

]]> Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/0/q/tower-of-the-sun-wp/xn0q-tower-of-the-sun-the-bloodstream-inside.mp3 0:06 4 full Tower of the Sun: The Tower That Would Not Leave https://qualla.com/tower-of-the-sun/ Photo credit CLUB910, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Big Roof was dismantled. The national pavilions were torn down. The Festival Plaza emptied out and became the green lawns of Expo '70 Commemorative Park. But the Tower of the Sun stayed. Its Golden Mask, originally built from 337 steel plates, weathered decades of rain and wi...

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Image: CLUB910 | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Thu, 12 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/x/n/0/q/tower-of-the-sun-wp/xn0q-tower-of-the-sun-the-tower-that-would-not-leave.mp3 0:06 5 full