Bunkyo Museum
Bunkyo Museum was established in 1991 for the purpose of passing history and culture of Bunkyo-ku to wide range of generations. The facility has two floors. The 1st floor’s exhibition is the throughout history of the Old Stone Age to the Modern Age. The 2nd floor’s exhibition changes according to theme.
Human already lived in Bunkyo-ku in the Old Stone Age, eighteen thousand years ago. So, rich history is there and people can learn about it at Bunkyo Museum.
After the discovery of clay ware in Hongo-Mukaigaoka-Yayoicho in 1884, the research was done and those wares were named “Yayoi Ware” after the place. And also, because of the different characteristics from Jomon Ware, the age when Yayoi Wares were used is called Yayoi Age.
In Edo period, this place began to have many Daimyo and Buke residences and also Gokokuji Temple and Nezu Jinja and it developed into a town. Also, Kanda waterworks were installed around that time. In the section of “Oedo Development and Bunkyo,” there is an old wooden water pipe on exhibit and you can learn about the process of town development from installation of main roads and waterworks.
Second floor has three sections, “Landscape of Town,” “Landscape of Living” and “Landscape of Culture.” In “Landscape of Town,” there is a georama of the “Yacchaba (vegetable market)” in Komagome to show common people’s life. You may lose the track of time and look into the georama.
“Landscape of Culture” exhibits the establishment of Japanese modern education of schools like Shoheizaka Gakumonjo and the connection between Bunkyo-ku and the great writers of modern time such as Soseki Natsume, Takuboku Ishikawa and Ichiyou Higuchi.
It is not a big facility but has full of interesting exhibitions for children and adults. Enjoy this museum exploring history of Bunkyo.
May 2019 Text: Ryoko Kuraishi Photo: Yasuo Yamaguchi