Tokyo / Ryogoku & Kiyosumi / Museum

Edo-Tokyo Museum

江戸東京博物館 えどとうきょうはくぶつかん

A life-size Nihonbashi bridge, a kabuki theatre and a merchant's house inside a museum shaped like a warehouse on stilts.

Worth itHistory · Architecture · Rainy day · With children

Kiyonori Kikutake's 1993 building — a giant elevated box on four legs, modelled on a rice granary — holds the city's own history museum: you cross a full-size reproduction of the wooden Nihonbashi bridge into a hall of models of Edo, a life-size row of shops, a kabuki stage, a Meiji newspaper office and a postwar apartment. It is the museum to see first if you want the rest of Tokyo to make sense. Note: it has been closed for major renovation and is scheduled to reopen; check the official site for the current status before you plan around it.

Don't miss

Map of central Tokyo Tokyo Ueno Akihabara Shinjuku Shibuya Shinagawa Ikebukuro Shimbashi Kabukiza Theatre Chuo-dori and the Sunday promenade Ginza Six Ginza Itoya Hama-rikyu Gardens The Ginza gallery walk Tsukiji Hongwanji The Ginza bar streets Tokyo Station Marunouchi Building Imperial Palace East Gardens Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum Marunouchi Naka-dori KITTE and the rooftop garden Idemitsu Museum of Arts Nihonbashi Bridge Mitsukoshi Nihombashi Main Store The old shops of Nihonbashi Artizon Museum Fukutoku Shrine and the Coredo lanes Nihonbashi river cruise Sensoji Temple Kappabashi kitchen street Sumida river water bus The craft and coffee streets west of the temple A kimono day in Asakusa Tokyo Skytree Asakusa Shrine and Sanja Matsuri Tokyo National Museum National Museum of Western Art Ueno Park and Shinobazu Pond Yanaka Ginza and the Yanesen lanes Nezu Shrine Ameyoko market street Asakura Museum of Sculpture Akihabara Electric Town Jimbocho book town Kanda Myojin Shrine Holy Resurrection Cathedral (Nikolai-do) Kanda's old noodle houses Yushima Seido and the Confucian hall Mori Art Museum and Tokyo City View The National Art Center, Tokyo Tokyo Midtown and the Suntory Museum of Art Azabu-Juban shopping street Tokyo Tower and Zojoji Temple Roppongi after dark Nezu Museum The Omotesando architecture walk Aoyama Cemetery Meiji Jingu Gaien ginkgo avenue The Aoyama and Minami-Aoyama back streets Meiji Jingu Yoyogi Park Takeshita Street and Cat Street Ota Memorial Museum of Art Togo Shrine Shibuya scramble crossing and Hachiko Shibuya Sky Nonbei Yokocho and the Shibuya alleys Udagawacho record shops and Shibuya vintage Tomigaya and Kamiyamacho Live music in Shibuya Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden Tokyo Metropolitan Government Building observatories Golden Gai Omoide Yokocho The Isetan food hall Hanazono Shrine Tsukiji Outer Market Toyosu Market and the tuna auction teamLab Planets The Tsukiji-to-Ginza walk The Meguro River cherry trees Daikanyama T-Site Daikanyama's low-rise streets Ebisu Garden Place and the Ebisu restaurant streets Nakameguro's back streets Kagurazaka's stone lanes Akagi Shrine Dining in Kagurazaka Zenkokuji Bishamonten Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo Edo-Tokyo Museum Kiyosumi Garden Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT) The Kiyosumi-Shirakawa roasters Edo-Tokyo Museum
A hand-drawn sketch for orientation — each place links to an exact map.
Tip
While it is closed, the Fukagawa Edo Museum in Kiyosumi — a small reconstructed Edo street — is the substitute.
Best time
Check reopening; then any weekday.
Allow
120 min
Station
Ryogoku (Oedo line), exit A4, direct; Ryogoku (JR), 3 minutes
Official site — hours, prices, closures
www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp · Map

Appears in

In this area: Ryogoku & Kiyosumi

Theatre Essential

Ryogoku Kokugikan and sumo両国国技館と相撲

Sumo's home stadium — three fifteen-day tournaments a year, a museum, and the stables where practice starts at dawn.

180 min · Ryogoku (JR), west exit, 1 minute; Ryogoku (Oedo line), 5 minutes
Garden Essential

Kiyosumi Garden清澄庭園

A Meiji stroll garden of stepping stones across a carp pond, built by the founder of Mitsubishi with stones from every province.

50 min · Kiyosumi-shirakawa (Hanzomon / Oedo lines), exit A3, 3 minutes
Museum Worth it

Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (MOT)東京都現代美術館

Japan's largest contemporary art museum, in a park east of the river, with a collection that starts in 1945 and a library of art books.

120 min · Kiyosumi-shirakawa (Hanzomon / Oedo lines), exit B2, 9 minutes

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