Kintetsu Hanazono Rugby Stadium

Every winter the final of the National High School Rugby Tournament is played here, and it has been that way since the ground opened in 1929 — which is how a suburban pitch in Higashi-Osaka came to be called the holy land of Japanese rugby. The stadium was built by the Osaka Electric Orbit Co., Ltd., later absorbed into the Kintetsu Group, and the idea came from Prince Chichibu, son of the Emperor.

The name has moved with the century. It was Hanazono Rugby Stadium before the war, a training field during it, then Hanazono again until the railway's name went above the gate in 1982. In 2015 it went back.

To host the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Kintetsu handed ownership to the City of Higashi-Osaka, and the ground was rebuilt between 2017 and 2018 at a cost of ¥7.26 billion, drawn from city funds, government grants and donations. The benches came out and individual seats went in; floodlights were set to 2,000 lux, a 710-inch screen went up, and the posts were raised to the 17 metres World Rugby asks for. It reopened on 26 October 2018 with Japan against a World XV.

Two tenants share the grass now: the Kintetsu Liners, and FC Osaka of the J3 League since 2023. Football has passed through before — Cerezo Osaka played a single home match here in 1999.