Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

If you squint at a map, greater Tokyo looks a little like a comet. Its 23 special wards form a dense core, barreling east and ending at the bay, streaming a tail of 30 municipalities behind.

As you move west into these municipalities, the concentration of people and infrastructure grows fainter until at last you hit the beginnings of the Okutama mountain region and the end of Tokyo proper.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

In the city of Koganei, a short way into the comet’s tail, lies a hidden gem: the Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum. Repurposed in 1993 by the government from the former Musashino Folklore Museum, it’s the mission of this facility, which is really more like a park, to preserve outstanding examples of Japanese architecture that would otherwise have been swallowed by Tokyo’s ongoing march of progress.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

A short bus ride from either Musashi-Koganei Station on the JR Chuo Line or Hanakoganei Station on the Seibu Shinjuku Line, the museum is set within an even larger public park. Admission is a bargain at ¥400 for adults, with discounts for seniors, students and groups, and a detailed brochure is provided in either English or Japanese. The main entrance hall, which is actually the former Kokaden Palace, was built in 1940 to mark the 2,600th anniversary of the accession of Japan’s first emperor to the throne, and was later moved to its present location.

Once inside, you’re back outside again, and free to choose a route. The park is broadly divided into three zones: west, center, and east, through which run several walking paths.

Some readers may be familiar with the experience of visiting a Japanese castle only to find that, (in all but a handful of cases) its beautiful exterior is merely a facade, hiding what is essentially a contemporary building.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

Happily, that is not the case here. Each unique specimen of architecture within the park has been painstakingly deconstructed, cataloged, in some cases stored, and then reconstituted in original form to sublime effect. They range from actual farm houses, warrior residences and other structures from the Edo Period (1603 – 1868) all the way to homes of significant cultural figures built in the 1950s, with examples from the Meiji, Taisho and Showa eras.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

There are private residences, shops, bars, an inn, a koban police box, and perhaps most tantalizing of all, a sento public bath featuring a temple-like roof that inspired the famed artist Hayao Miyazaki for his animated classic “Spirited Away.” Miyazaki’s Studio Ghibli is quite close by, and the Ghibli Museum, located beside Inokashira Park, isn’t far either. Miyazaki also designed Edo Tokyo Open Air Architecture Museum’s mascot, “Edomaru,” a grinning green insect.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

It is hard to oversell this park. For whatever reason, it isn’t particularly well known, meaning it’s mercifully free of the stifling crowds that plague most other sites of interest. Plaques in proper English and Japanese provide background information on each building, but signage is generally quite minimal, and most of the structures are full of authentic period items such as telephones, tools, or clocks.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

As most of the exhibits can be entered into and explored, readers are strongly advised to wear shoes that can be put on and taken off with a minimum of fuss. Because this museum is set into a larger park, and is itself quite green, there’s no noise pollution from the city, and wandering slowly through the rooms is extremely pleasurable. The effect is something like time travel.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

There are a few discreet restaurants that serve coffee, tea, beer and basic food, as well as vending machines and food stalls. Many of the buildings have wheelchair access. There are also seasonal special events and regular activities led by volunteers.


Photos by Ben Beech

Edo-Tokyo Open-air Architectural Museum

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