This article is based on a visit made on Sunday, 30 March 2014.
On the first morning of my second holiday in Japan, I woke up with no jet-lag, but was greeted by windy and intermittently rainy weather. Luckily, that had no impact on how I planned to spend the rest of that morning -- at the Edo-Tokyo Museum (
江戸東京博物館), one of the premiere history museums of the entire city.
For those unaware, Tokyo’s former name was Edo (
江戸), and it flourished economically and culturally under that name during what we now call the Edo Period, lasting from 1603 to 1867. Following the Edo Period, the Emperor of Japan took back power from the Tokugawa shoguns, establishing a new capital city in the newly-renamed Tokyo (
東京). The re-opening of foreign trade helped the city flourish even further, and quickly bounce back from the damage sustained from the 1923 Kanto Earthquake and from World War II. As per its name, the Edo-Tokyo Museum focuses on these periods of history, from the 17th century through the present day.
But first... we've got to get there!
The nearest station, Ryogoku Station, also sits right next to the Kokugikan (
国技館), the premiere sumo stadium in Japan. So, there are numerous decorations dedicated to the sport of sumo wrestling.
Along the walls of the station interior, you can measure your height against those of the many yokozuna, or sumo grand-masters, over the years. At 5 ft. 8 in. / 173 cm, I'm just about as tall as this guy,
Kagamisato Kiyoji (鏡里 喜代治). Born in Aomori Prefecture, and with a registered weight of 335 lbs. / 161 kg, he gained the top rank in 1953 and retired in 1958.
This is the actual Kokugikan stadium, which sits across from the museum. The original stadium, the first fixed sumo stadium in Japan, was built in 1909; the current structure dates from 1985. It has also hosted boxing, Japan Pro Wrestling, and even WWE events. In fact, it will host boxing events in the 2020 Summer Olympics.
There is also a museum dedicated to sumo on the site, but it was closed when I visited. I was still able to snap a pic of this mural, though. But enough about that -- wasn't there that other museum I wanted to go to...?
The Edo-Tokyo Museum building. It's big, unique, and I must say, impressive. It is modeled after old warehouses for storing rice, which were put on stilts to protect their contents from floods and pests.
Underneath the Edo-Tokyo Museum. The ticket window is located in this plaza, as is the entrance. You ride the escalators up the red and glass tube to enter the museum.
The escalators put you at the upper floor of the museum. To continue through the museum, you’ll cross a life-size model of the Nihonbashi bridge. the "mile zero" from which all roads across old Japan were measured. Alas, the real Nihonbashi was replaced with a new concrete bridge in 1911.
One thing you’ll notice about this museum is that there are a lot of scale-model dioramas, depicting city life across a variety of eras. Photography and even flash photography is generally allowed, and there are even binoculars attached to some of these displays so you can get a closer look at all the detail that went into them.
Some dioramas are cross-sections cutting into larger buildings. I'm not sure in retrospect, but I think this might have been a palace building from the former Edo Castle, which had since burned down and been replaced by the Imperial Palace.
Some dioramas are a bit larger in scale, to better depict the interactions of everyday life back then. I think this was a restaurant of some sort. Although, the glass surrounding them makes it difficult to take clear pictures, especially if you use the flash.
Still other models are of a more lifelike scale, such as this re-creation of a single-family home.
There are a fair number of displays devoted to the kabuki theatre, such as this life-size diorama of a kabuki stage. Hard to believe that female roles are played by men -- but in fact,
this never always used to be the case. In fact, the first kabuki troupes from the early 17th century were all-female. The Tokugawa shogunate of the time banned women from performing in 1629, due to the erotic content of some plays, and because some performers doubled as prostitutes. Technically, the ban was revoked as early as 1652, but female Kabuki actors never quite caught on again.
A life-size model of a kabuki theatre. I think it may have been a re-creation of
Ichimura-za (市村座), a theatre was built in 1634, but not rebuilt since having burned down in 1932. The pictures and text banners on the upper tier of the facade may have advertised what plays were in production, similar to movie posters.
Kabuki isn't the only art form represented in this museum, however. A display showing the steps of making an
ukiyo-e (
浮世絵) colour woodblock print.
A re-creation of a store selling
ukiyo-e prints.
Some of the exhibits are more interactive, such as this one where you can step inside a palanquin...
...and this one, where you can try hoisting the banner-signs used by firefighters and other brigades...
...and this one, where you can try lifting a box of old coins. The whole thing weighs 14 kilograms / 38 pounds, and yeah, that's something.
As you progress through the museum, the focus shifts from the "Edo" to the "Tokyo" period.
A model of the Ginza district from the turn of the 20th century.
An early-20th-century car and traffic signal.
Artifacts from World War II.
The red-lit areas correspond with the destruction of the city by
Allied fire-bombing raids during World War II. They tend not to get as much publicity as the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, but they were no less destructive. In fact, with estimates ranging from 75,000 to 200,000 casualties combined, they may have had an even higher death toll. This, in addition to the
Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, is why few historical buildings survive in Tokyo today.
The Instrument of Surrender which ended the Pacific theatre of World War II, signed by Japanese and Allied commanders.
Have you ever heard of the "Three Sacred Treasures" (
三種の神器) of Japan? Also known as the
Imperial Regalia of Japan, they are three artifacts which play a role in the coronation of each new Emperor. They are never shown to the public, but are known to be a sword, a mirror, and a jewel. For postwar Japanese civilians, however, these three "treasures" were three appliances everyone seemed to want: a television set, a rice cooker, and a refrigerator.
Posters from the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. This event was a big deal not just for the city, but for Japan as a whole, marking the completion of its postwar recovery and the start of its march to become of the world’s strongest economies.
Of course, Tokyo has also been awarded the honour of hosting the Olympics again, for 2020, and this fact is not lost on the Edo-Tokyo Museum. Posters describing development plans for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. The upper picture is of Shibuya, where venues from the 1964 Olympics will be re-used. The bottom picture is of Odaiba and the Tokyo Bay area, where new venues will be built, along with the Olympic Broadcast Centre.
The Edo-Tokyo Museum is the perfect place to start your exploration of Japan’s history, but it shouldn’t end there! The Edo-Tokyo Open-Air Architectural Museum, affiliated with the main Edo-Tokyo Museum, sits across town, 50 minutes away on the JR Chuo line. Or, hop a couple of stations down the Toei Oedo line to the Fukagawa Edo Museum for a life-size, in-depth look at the Edo period lifestyle. And, as previously mentioned, the sumo museum at the Kokugikan is directly across from this very museum.
Hours: Open from 9:30 AM to 5:30 PM, or to 7:30 PM on Saturdays. Admission ends 30 minutes before closing time. Closed Mondays (except holidays), and on the 1st of January.
Costs: ¥600. Special exhibitions may cost extra. If you present an active subway pass, entry is discounted to ¥480. More information:
(English) (Japanese)
Address: 1-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida-ku, Tokyo-to 〒130-0015
Access: Right next to Ryogoku Station (JR Chuo-Sobu
(JB) and Toei Oedo
(E) lines). From Tokyo Station, take the Yamanote
(JY) or Keihin-Tohoku
(JK) line to Akihabara (JY03/JK28, 4 minutes), then take the Chuo-Sobu (Local) line to Ryogoku (JB21, 4 minutes, total ¥160, JR Pass OK). From Shinjuku Station, take the Chuo (Rapid)
(JC) line to Ochanomizu (JC03, 10 minutes), then take the Chuo-Sobu (local) line to Ryogoku (5 minutes, ¥220, JR Pass OK).
Directions: From the Chuo-Sobu line platform, take the west exit and turn right. From the Oedo line platform, head straight from exit A4.
Website:
(English) (Japanese)
