Travel to the Past with 4 Extraordinary Historical Museums in Tokyo

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  • In Tokyo, there are many kinds of museums that you can visit. Some of them are history-related museums. Those museums normally have exhibitions related to the Edo period. Some museums seem to really be inviting us to see what happened in real life during that period, and have completed collections of illustrations that make us feel the past-life of that time deeper as if we travelled to the past.

    1. Tokyo National Museum

    Tokyo National Museum was established in 1872. This museum is the oldest national museum in Japan. The museum has more than 110.000 collections with most of them being collected in Japan and some from the other Asian regions. In addition, this museum has been used as a research and information center since 1984. By using some materials such as books and magazines, archeological reports and findings, photographs and images, this museum became the favorite place for students and researchers to conduct particular deeper researches about Japan.

    Tokyo National Museum Official Website

    2. Edo-Tokyo Museum


    This unique museum exhibits illustrations of the ancient Tokyo in Edo period. In the permanent exhibition center, the are three zones that show the common life of that period. They include Edo castle and district zones, Life of the townspeople, and publication and information. All of the corners display interesting materials to give you a deeper understanding of what life was like in Japan in the past. There are also some special and featured exhibitions. The schedule can be consulted from the website of the museum.

    Edo-Tokyo Museum Official Website

    3. Shitamachi Museum


    This museum was built to teach and provide information about the culture of Shitamachi, the famous and the main area of Edo. The exhibitions in this museum have been divided into 2 zones. The first floor is about Shitamachi lifestyle and living spaces, each home built in this area contains objects that were used in everyday lives. The second floor shows a variety of documents and objects such as tools and toys.

    Shitamachi Museum Official Website

    4. Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum


    This museum was built in 1993 by Tokyo Metropolitan Government to relocate, preserve and exhibit historical buildings with great value of culture from Edo period and post world war II period, that are impossible to rebuild in the original places due to social and economic changes. This museum was built based on the long term plan of the reconstruction of 30 Important historical buildings.

    Edo-Tokyo Open Air Museum　Official Website