museum

As the nation that gave the world the oldest extant full length novel – Genji Monogatari – Japan has a number of museums dedicated to their literature, and Meguro plays host to one of the very best – The Museum of Japanese Modern Literature.

Housed in a modern looking building in the extreme corner of what is today Komaba Park, formerly the home of the powerful Kaga Clan, the museum centers on Japan’s many many gifted writers of the 20th century; from Murakami to Mishima, Ariyoshi to Kawabata.

Separated by author, sometimes chronologically, the displays of manuscripts, personal memorabilia and biographical information is of course primarily in Japanese but fans of a given author are more likely aware of the background, here to view the papers and penned directly, images hitherto unseen and personal trinkets through which those long dead speak to their modern day fans.

Personal exhibitions related to certain authors do take place from time to time so it is worth calling ahead or checking the homepage (Japanese only) for further information prior to planning a visit. (link below)

Access: via Todai-mae Station on the Inokashira Line

Admission: 100 yen

Link: http://www.bungakukan.or.jp/

The 25 rooms of the Tokyo National Museum, opened 1937, if truth be told, are worth a visit any day of the week, any week of the year. By far the best museum in the city in which to sample Japan and Japanese culture as it was, in spacious, well managed surroundings with thousands of well presented exhibits, no visit to the capital of Japan would be complete without at least a couple of hours in the National Museum viewing the displayed items from a close on 90,000 strong collection. Rotations do regularly take place making repeat visits well worth considering for those in town longer than the usual day or two, and special exhibitions (fees apply) are held throughout the year.

Access: Ueno Station (JR & subway lines)

Fee: 600 yen – further charges apply for special exhibitions

Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 09:30 - 17:00

Tokyo’s only museum dedicated to looking at the lives led by millions of regular men and women over the years spanning the early Meiji and late Taisho-eras (c. 1868-1923), the Shitamachi (lit: downtown) Museum is a fully hands-on facility with very little meant for merely viewing through glass panels. Play with toys used by Japanese living at the turn of the last century, step inside recreations of shops and homes as they once looked and leave all the wiser and better informed about the lives of the regular J-folk of yesteryear.

Access: Ueno Station (JR & subway lines)

Fee: 300 yen

Opening Hours: Tuesday – Sunday 09:30 - 16:30

The 54 floor, 238m Roppongi Hills complex opened its doors in early 2003 and instantly became the most popular building in the city – even today, around 100,000 visitors drop by on weekdays, a number that doubles and even triples on weekends. Today the structure is home to many of Tokyo’s leading edge companies along with the prestigious Mori Art Museum, a globally renowned hotel, residential and office space, and of course the obligatory viewing platform – Tokyo City View – 52 floors above street level. A tad expensive to enter, but given that it includes access to he brilliant Mori Art Museum, it is still well worth the trip, especially at night when the lights of the city are switched on and the grey view of the daylight hours.

Access: via Roppongi Station on the Hibiya / Oedo subway lines

Fee: 1,500 yen

Opening Hours:

10:00-22:00 Mon, Weds, Thurs / 10:00-24:00 Fri – Sun / 10:00-17:00 Tues.

The Memorial Museum for the Kanto Earthquake Disaster in north-eastern Tokyo is set in a quiet location, a few hundred metres north of the sumo stadium and on the opposite side of the river from Asakusabashi – in the same grounds as the Monument to the Victims of the Tokyo Air Raids and its own large Memorial Hall.

Officially established to serve as a memorial to the approximately 143,000 individuals who lost their lives, and the 104,000 injured in what was later to become known as The Great Kanto Earthquake; Kanto being the name of the plain atop which both Tokyo and Yokohama are situated, the structure today sits somewhat forlornly atop the site of the former Army Clothing Depot, which, when vacant in September 1923, was the site at which 38,000 men, women and children burnt to death following the magnitude 8 earthquake that rocked the city just before lunchtime – at 11:58 a.m.

Having evacuated to the relatively large plot of open land near the Sumida River to escape fires started throughout the city in the kitchens of houses preparing for lunch, those making it this far remained still as the flames approached in the tragically mistaken belief that the open land would protect them. It didn’t and they perished in a hurricane generated by the heat – trapped in by a river literally boiling on one side, and a wall of flame on the other.

Exhibits on the first floor of the museum include everyday household items used in Taisho-era (1912-1926) Japan such as pots, pans, cups and plates. All burnt or melted together they sit alongside fire damaged typewriters, bank notes and even contributions from the American Red Cross ‘Japan Day’ fund raiser held on September the 13th of the same year.

The second floor of the period brick building looks at the landscape after the quake, the contributions of artists of the day in recording the event, and offers a more scientific explanation of more recent quakes than was available in the 12th year of the reign of the Taisho Emperor.

Sadly, at no point is there any obvious reference to the organized hunting down and subsequent murder of thousands of Korean and Chinese believed somehow responsible for the quake; unfounded police-initiated rumors spreading as lethally as the flames told of Asian neighbors poisoning water supplies in the aftermath.

Outside the museum proper, and across a road where modern wooden buildings stand just inches apart from office blocks, several final exhibits can be seen in the form the fires left them.

Leaving something of a lump in the throat at the extreme power of the heat that could melt concrete and twist its iron innards, fuse piles of nails and buckle melted girders - a feeling of sadness about the site was compounded and multiplied tenfold when the majority of visitors to the area appear to be merely using the adjacent park as a place to entertain the kids or take a nap on the bench on a Sunday afternoon, ignoring the museum completely.

In this ignorance perhaps lies the biggest tragedy of all: the fact that throughout recorded history the Kanto area has been hit by a major quake every 60-70 years. The Great Kanto Earthquake was 85 years ago now but just who is ready for next time?

Photo by Carolyn Todd
The most popular site for cherry blossom viewing in Osaka is undoubtedly the Osaka Mint; suppliers of coinage to the Japanese nation.
The Mint Museum is open to visitors throughout the year (no charge), but the grounds of the Mint are open for only one week in April each year; in 2008, this will be the period between April 16th and the 22nd. A 500m walkway through the grounds alongside the Yodo River is lined with in excess of 400 cherry trees, including the popular double-flowering and much rarer green-flowered variety of blooms.
The Mint is open until 9 p.m. each night with the area outside the grounds lined with food and souvenir stands that serves to create something of a carnival atmosphere.
The cherry blossoms themselves are illuminated each night, the pink and white blossoms glowing in the soft light.

Admission: free

Access: Tanimachi Subway Line / Keihan Line: Temmabashi Station – 15 mins on foot – north of the station.

Tanimachi / Sakaisuji Subway Line: Minamimorimachi Station