Museums
I’ve visited a number of museums recently.
On April 21, 2023, I visited the Hikawa maru floating museum at its pier adjacent to Yamashita Park on Yokohama’s waterfront, south of Tokyo. The Hikawa maru was a luxury ocean cruise ship in the 1930s. It famously brought Charlie Chaplin to Japan. During the Second World War it was a hospital ship. Now it’s a floating museum, neither as big nor as luxurious as modern cruise ships, but still an interesting thing to see. I boarded it many years ago and for a long time fantasized about returning. So, I did.
Then, on April 22, 2023, I visited the Nippon Maru and Yokohama Port Museum in the Minatomirai district of Yokohama. The Nippon Maru is a tall sail training ship, now a floating museum. Very interesting to walk through. Yokohama Port is extremely important in Japanese history as well as Pacific trade because it was one of the first, and the biggest of the Treaty Ports, when Japan first began opening up to the outside world in the 1850s. So, learning about the creation and history of the port, and the foreign community that lived and worked there (and is buried there) was really, really interesting. Who were those foreigners who came in those early days to the Far East?
Also on April 22, 2023, I re-visited the Yokohama Doll Museum for the first time in almost thirty years. I’m not terribly interested in dolls, except teddy bears. I am very interested in teddy bears. Re-visiting the museum was a kind of sympathetic magic, to make an existential connection to my first visit there (and to the person I was with at the time).
On July 7-8, 2023, I visited Nagoya Castle in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture, west of Tokyo. The castle keep was closed for repair of earthquake damage, but I toured the grounds and the palace rebuilt in the Honmaru grounds at the foot of the castle keep. Very interesting.
Then, on September 23, 2023, I visited the large National Museum of Nature and Science in Ueno Park, Taito Ward, eastern Tokyo. I learned a little about the natural history of Japan, and I saw the taxidermied pelt of the famous dog, Hachiko.
Then on January 4, 2024, I visited the Science and Technology Museum in Kitanomaru Park, Chiyoda Ward. It’s a museum geared towards children, but I learned some about machinery and how machinery operates and to play hands on with a lot of mechanical stuff.
Then on January 13, 2024, I visited the Meguro Parasitological Museum in Meguro Ward. A small, private museum near JR Meguro Station displaying many samples of parasites collected and used by Japanese researcher Satsu Yamaguchi (1894 – 1976), and explaining their various related human diseases.
Then on January 20, 2024, I visited the Tokyo Fire Museum near Yotsuya-sanchome Station in Shinjuku Ward, central Tokyo. Another museum geared towards children, but it was very interesting to see old, preserved fire-fighting vehicles. I learned about the history of fire fighting in Japan, and about the Tokyo Fire Department specifically: their vehicles and equipment; their uniforms and organization; large conflagrations both natural and man-made they have dealt with; and, contemporary safety protocols.
Then on February 3, 2024, I visited the Suginami Animation Museum in Suginami Ward. I’ve known about this museum and its location for a long time, because I’ve passed by it more than once. But I never went there until after I saw it mentioned in a tourist brochure. I figured, if it’s important enough to make its way into a brochure, then maybe I should go there. So, I did. I’m not interested in anime, but the small museum a short bus ride from JR Ogikubo Station lays out the history of Japanese animation.
Then on February 10, 2024, I visited the Japanese Sword Museum near Ryogoku Station in Sumida Ward. This is a stone’s throw from the Rygoku Kokugikan Sumo Arena, adjacent to the Yasuda Garden, and kitty-corner from the Yokoamicho Park. Yokoamicho Park is home to the Great Kanto Earthquake Memorial Museum (which I visited), and the Tokyo Metropolitan Memorial Hall for victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake (1923) as well as victims of the Great Tokyo Air Raid (March 9-10, 1945). It’s a small museum preserving the private collections of sword afficionados Junji Honma and Kanichi Sato. I learned about Japanese ironmongery and the techniques of producing the famous Japanese weapons. Through television and movies, most foreigners are familiar with the long, curved, single-edged katana of samurai warriors. But honestly, there are many kinds of swords in Japan: long swords and short swords; straight and curved; single-edged and double-edged. Swords hold an almost spiritual place in Japanese culture. Today, people can easily buy replica swords. I have a few replicas. But genuine swords are still made master craftsmen and sold. There are sword shops, plus many department stores also sell them. They are fantastically expensive works of art. Also, very dangerous.
Then on Friday, February 16, 2024, I visited the Metro Subway Museum near Kasai Station in Edogawa Ward. Another museum geared towards children. There is an English-language pamphlet and lots of English signage. It was interesting to learn about the history of subways in Japan, as well as the techniques used to build tunnels, the evolving mechanics of trains, and the various equipment associated with subway work. There are several preserved, heritage subway cars, and more than one simulator to try. There has been great development in Tokyo’s subways just in the time I’ve lived here. It was interesting to see my experience as part of the 100-year history of Tokyo subways. I was there on a weekday when it wasn’t very crowded. But it’s the kind of place likely to be crowded on the weekend, I think. Crowded with young families with children.
Then on Wednesday, February 21, 2024, I visited the National Showa Memorial Museum, a.k.a. the Showa-kan, in Kudanshita, Chiyoda-ku. This is another museum whose location and theme I have known about for a long time. Only on a sudden whim did I decide to go inside. The Showa-kan documents the years 1935-1955. It details the hardships of civilian life in wartime Japan and then the difficult post-war period, during the reign of Emperor Hirohito, a.k.a. Emperor Showa. It was interesting (not to mention sad) because this museum features the daily lives of common people, compared to the Yushukan, the controversial military and war museum within the grounds of the nearby Yasukuni Shrine, which features the martial history of the nation.
Then on Thursday, February 22, 2024, I visited the Shokei-kan, the Historical Records Hall for the Wounded and Sick Retired Soldiers, also in Kudanshita, Chiyaod-ku, and only a few hundred meters from the Showa-kan. The Shokei-kan occupies only two floors of a buildings (the Green Oaks Building). The 3F hosts the permanent exhibits, while the 2F hosts a research library and seminar space. While the Yushukan museum at Yasukuni Shrine deals with the military history of the country, and the Showa-kan deals with the wartime hardships of the civilian population, the Shokei-kan deals with everyday soldier life in wartime, their wounds and treatment, and their decommissioned life back home. It was very moving because it strikes home the message that Japanese soldiers were human beings who believed in their country, and not the maniacal monsters of American propaganda. The students I teach now are exactly the age of wartime recruits. I look at my students and I can so easily imagine WWII soldiers sitting in front of me. They’re just teenage boys! I grew up watching American war movies. It is interesting to see a WWII history museum completely lacking any reference to or images of the Allies.
One museum I briefly thought seriously about visiting is the Unko Museum Tokyo in Odaiba, Minato Ward, down by Tokyo Harbor. It’s a museum devoted to poop - by which I mean feces. I decided not to go, however, because my research made it clear that it was a cute picture-taking place for young children, intended to remove embarrassment from a normal but private body function, and encourage (or, at least de-stigmatize) conversation about it. What I hoped for was a museum that would teach me about the history of public sanitation in Japan, sewerage, hygiene, cholera, and the night soil industry, or about the history of the privy here, the introduction of the Western toilet leading up to the invention of the modern washlet toilet seat, etc. But it’s none of that.