Edo-Tokyo Architectural garden 江戸東京たてもの園

Visitors can stroll through Koganei Park that is home to this giant museum, a history book in the open air. Mainly residences from the Meiji era (1868-1912), but also some buildings from the Edo period (1603-1868) are scattered here and there. Here modest dwellings can be seen alongside mansions, a farm or a police station. Over there, a tram from the 1950s crosses a street lined with boutiques, while further on a Sento from the1930s is a reminder that public bathhouses have been a part of everyday Japanese life for a long time.

Inspired Miyazaki

The site was created in an approach of responsible conservation and since its opening has benefited from the contribution of many pieces from a folk museum in Musashino, a small town in the prefecture of Tokyo. Some buildings were completely disassembled and were rebuilt in Koganei Park. Scenes from daily life, mainly in the first half of the twentieth century, present many period items. Set back a little, but still one of the main residences of the garden, the residence of Korekiyo Takahashi (1854-1936), Prime Minister in the early 1920s, reveals the inside of the residence of a rich politician.

Hayao Miyazaki, the great anime director, went there many times to create the universe of Spirited Away: it seems the place stimulated his creativity. A past that some people reject, to such a point that it may disappear.