Japan Travel — The Edo Tokyo Museum

Tokyo (which was previously known as Edo) is completed 400 years in 2003.

Edo Tokyo Museum was opened in 1993 and is dedicated to the preservation of the cultural heritage of Edo Tokyo. Edo was set up as capital by Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, which was 400 years back. Before this, Japan was divided into several provinces, but Ieyasu first made a strong central government.

There were 15 emperors in around 200 years of this dynasty. During their rule, Japan was a very closed country — having business relations with only Korea and Holland (China??). In 1853, Commander Perry from America came and urged that the country be opened up. When it was done, the prices rose fast and the people started suffering. So there was a revolution under the leadership of Meiji (called Meiji restoration). 2.5 million people died in this, and the Meiji dynasty was set up. This is the beginning of the modern age in Japan.

During the time of Shogun, the Emperor (who was the titular head) was in Kyoto. So Kyoto was the designated capital, though the power center was in Edo. After the Meiji Restoration, the Emperor shifted to Edo, and it was renamed Tokyo.

One interesting thing, which I might miss out on in course of the description — Kyoto had gold coins and Edo (Tokyo) had silver coins as an instrument of exchange. As a result, there was a significant market of money exchangers in both these places. Did we have anything equivalent in India?

The museum has many life-sized models, as well as scaled-down models — which recreates the history.

The Edo Tokyo Museum is very close to the Ryogoku station. Ryogoku happens to be the Sumo capital of Tokyo. So even on a normal day, one gets to see several Sumo wrestlers in this place. Right now however the grand championship is on, and today was the final day. I was keen to be a spectator, but unfortunately, very expensive tickets were available. I have however developed a good appreciation of the sport — this is very much different from the general impression that I had. I would write sometime about Sumo wrestling.

The above is the entrance to the Sumo stadium where the championship is on.

The banners with the names of the Sumo wrestlers who are participating in the grand championship.

A view of the stadium.

The stadium from behind (actually the Edo-Tokyo museum is behind the stadium. This view is from close to the Edo-Tokyo Museum).

Assembled spectators. Incidentally, the most popular Sumo wrestler now is Takanohana. However, he retired during this championship — so there had been a lot of discussions on the TV and media. He is however very charismatic — and has terrific techniques.

One of the wrestlers. But I do not think he is a participant in the grand championship.

Way to the Edo Tokyo Museum.

Near the entrance. Note that the museum stands on four pillars. So one needs to go a distance to start seeing. Again the museum has two parts — the permanent exhibition and the special exhibition. I had been only to the permanent exhibition — which is from 4th to 7th floor (I happened to get a 20% discount being a foreign tourist).

What you see is the ticket counter.

Escalators would take you up to the 7th floor, and then one would come down.

See the entrance to the main escalator (in the red).

She is the one who was my guide (guide volunteers are available for free, she is for English). They do not wait for a group, so I was the only one. She volunteers two Sundays a month, otherwise, she works. She is not a student of history — generally interested.

Swarming crowd.

The tour starts with the Nihombashi bridge. Since in this museum there was a good amount of written content, I have photographed them too. I would try to follow the text with the photographs.

The underside of the bridge.

This is the sculpture of Shogun Tokugawa Ieyasu, who set up Edo (Tokyo) as capital.

This, as mentioned in the text of the previous page, is a locality of the common people. This is a scene from the early Edo period. Most of the houses are made of wood, with stones on the roof to prevent them from being blown away. The white ones are somewhat like concrete structures — which were stone ground mixed with some adhesives.

Edo was the victim of fire many times. I do not remember the year (maybe mid 18th century); one fire destroyed 70% of Tokyo and 100,000 people died. After that many regulations came in (including shifting of many structures to outside the city, and not rebuilding many structures destroyed by fire). So in later periods, the number of wooden houses came down.

Another view.

This is a daimyo house in Edo. Daimyos are the nobles. They were to spend a specified amount of time at the capital. For some, it was every alternate year. For some, it was one year in every three years. In some cases, it was alternate six months. However, wherever the Daimyos would be, their families (wife and children) would be permanently in the capital. This was to prevent any revolution.

This is the main gate used by the Daimyo and his family.

This is the entrance, which the Shogun used while visiting Daimyo.

Another view.

View from the backside.

Since the noblemen divided time at their fiefdom as well as Edo, they had three classes of employees. The first category stayed permanently at fief, the second category would travel to Edo with their master and would immediately go back to the province, and the third category was permanently based in Edo. These people had very less salary, had no work, and found it extremely difficult to manage their life.

The construction on the left side where the Shogun used to meet the Daimyos. The other structure on the right where the Shogun used to meet the imperial messengers (remember Shogun was not the Emperor, the Emperor was in Kyoto).

Imperial messenger meeting room closely.

Daimyo meeting room closely.

Another view.

Another view of the Shogun palace. Incidentally, when the Emperor moved to Tokyo, he moved into this palace — and this is the Imperial Palace of today.

I could not catch a better glimpse of the box. See the two symbols on the box — the right one is of the Emperor and the left one is of the Shogun.

This is one of the many banners that are hanging in the museum. I do not have the description.

This is the water supply system in Edo. One on the left is the storage, and the wooden slab in the middle is the pipe for supply.

Note the piping for the water supply. They were underground and made of wood.

This is a painting of the firefighters. As I mentioned before, Edo Tokyo was a victim of several fires, and in one of the 70% of the city was burnt and 100,000 people died (I forgot to mention, even 300 years back Tokyo had a population of a million). To fight fires, there were voluntary groups of firefighters. The above painting depicts one such group.

The one on the left is the banner, which was the symbol of one of the fire-fighting groups. It seems that there was intense rivalry between the various groups fighting the fire, and if one group reached early it would prevent the others from joining in. The fight was mainly in breaking the house on fire and isolating it. So you can see them carrying a lot of sticks.

This is another banner of the firefighting team.

I forgot to catch up on this, however, this is a huge bell anyway.

This is a typical house in Edo. The front side is a single room accommodation, the backside a family resides.

From another side.

This is a craftsman staying alone. I guess that except for the dwelling place, the others (bath, kitchen, toilet) were community facilities. Note the bed on the right, it is a perfect mattress.

This person is a carpenter. As in any capital city, everybody had vocations other than the peasantry. Also, as this period was relatively peaceful in Japan, the samurais (the traditional warrior class) were mainly involved in office work.

A family house in Edo. A real scarcity of space!

To have a printing, twelve blocks (shown in the bottom row) was created.

As books were expensive, Edo also had book lenders (how old is book lending history in India?). Edo had a very high level of literacy, as every family focused on children’s education.

A map showing the location of book lenders in Edo. See how numerous they are.

Wooden water pump (similar to in India).

This was used to carry night soil, which was used as manure. See how gleefully people are trying to pick this up today.

This is a model of life in Edo. This is one of the most popular spots for common people in Edo.

A couple of other views. Note the kid at the distance, he is not taking pictures but looking through binoculars (provided by the museum, off-course tied).

These are life-size recreations of the Kabuki theatre performance. Kabuki is a humor theatre, and even now very popular. All characters are played by men — even today. At one point in time, women also used to perform, but then there was a decree from the king prohibiting this as it was felt improper.

This is a model of the Kabuki theatre.

Note the seating arrangements inside.

This is a life-size model of the Kabuki theatre (people on the right are real).

Another view. The symbol on the top indicates that the government has approved this theatre. In the Edo period, it was mandatory to have permission from the government, and apparently, there were a handful of Kabuki theater groups, which had permission. Now off-course there are many.

Are you able to see an arrow within a bull’s eye (which goes into a bull’s eye, you can see in the previous picture)? This was a prayer for the good fortune of the play.

The above view from the top.

This is part of the procession (I need to get more details on this).

From the top of the model of the Nihombashi bridge. See the Kabuki theatre on the left.

This is a palanquin sort of stuff, which is carried during a procession.

Model of the procession.

Such processions are rare in Tokyo today because the electric/ telephone lines come in the way. However, they are still to be seen in the countrysides.

Evolution of cycles.

Complicated.

Rickshaw. This seems to be hot in Japan — Kolkata can send them a few.

Evolution of clocks.

Note the layers off landfill in the next picture.

This is a replica below a glass floor. One can walk on it.

This is the model of a bank. See the first and second floors — there is Western influence. But on the top is the Japanese traditional structure.

Another view of the bank.

Another view.

The backside of the Church. See how nicely the adjoining structures have been modeled.

This is Ginza, one of the main shopping spots of the nineteenth century (Ginza is still the most important shopping complex in Tokyo, where the richest of the rich shop). See the Western influence in the dress, as well as the houses.

See the houses behind the first row of houses in Ginza. This shows that inside, the people were still maintaining the Japanese culture.

The movie theatre.

See the structure on the next page. Note the elevator part.

Early Ford model.

See a wartime Tokyo house in the next picture.

An unexploded shell (I hope defused!). Even today, such shells are discovered while digging for construction, etc.

1944 Piano Accordion.

A Washing machine (note the manufacturer). What time can do.

Refrigerator.

Television.

Recorder, Rice Cooker (?).

Sony TV.

Record Player.

This is outside the present Shinjuku station after the war. After WW II, when the citizens came back there was a crisis of the items of daily necessity, as many had left their house unattended. This started a black market in Shinjuku, mainly controlled by Chinese and Korean. So even today, one would find Chinese and Korean gangs in Shinjuku.

This is the final snap of the lobby just before coming out.