Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is a collection of historic buildings, mainly from the Tokyo area, brought to a new location for preservation.
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum 江戸東京たてもの園
The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum in Koganei City, western Tokyo, is a collection of historic buildings, mainly from around the Tokyo area, brought to a new location for preservation. The Museum is part of the Edo-Tokyo Museum located on the other side of Tokyo in Ryogoku.
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is located in Koganei Park, the second largest park in metropolitan Tokyo.
Visitor Center (the former Kokaden Palace)
House of Kunio Mayekawa, Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
Exhibits
The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum is divided into three zones: West, Central and East.
The West Zone is mostly residences: both farm houses and city dwellings.
The Central Zone includes the Visitor Center (which is the former Kokaden Palace built to celebrate the 2,600th anniversary of the Chrysanthemum Throne at the height of Japanese militarism) and other residences from the 1920's. The Visitor Center has an exhibition on the history of Tokyo from ancient times to the present.
The East Zone has many properties formerly used for commerce, including various stores, a bath house and a bar.
The majority of the structures are from the Meiji Period (1868-1912), but with buildings from before and after then, too.
Former Tokyo street car to Shinbashi, Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
The preserved displays include a koban (police box), a sento (public bath), a Tokyo street car, a photo studio, an opulent residence belonging to a member of the Mitsui family and a number of thatched farmhouses.
Each building has a signboard, with English, that explains its original location and age and other relevant information. You can enter several of the structures (most with the requirement that shoes be removed).
House of German architect Georg de Lalande, Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
Map of Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum © Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
Access - how to get to the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
From Musashi Koganei Station (North Exit) on the JR Chuo Line walk along Silk Road to the entrance to Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum or take a Seibu bus to Koganei-koen nishi-guchi.
From Hana-Koganei Station, take a Seibu bus for Musashi-Koganei Station and alight at Koganei-koen nishi-guchi.
There are also direct limousine buses to and from Haneda Airport to Musashi Koganei Station.
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (www.tatemonoen.jp)
3-7-1 Sakuramachi
Koganei-shi
Tokyo 184-0005
Tel: 042 388 3300
Admission: 400 yen for adults; over 65's 200 yen, university students 320 yen, junior high and high school students (outside Tokyo) 200 yen.
Hours: 9.30 am-5.30 pm April-September; 9.30 am-4.30 pm, October-March
Closed: Mondays (or the next day if Monday is a national holiday)
Other Architectural Museums in Japan
Similar such parks of historic buildings collected together for preservation include Shikoku Mura in Yashima near Takamatsu, Meiji Mura just outside Nagoya in Inuyama and the Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farmhouses in Osaka. Also in Tokyo is the Kodaira Furusato Mura.
