Edo-Tokyo Museum

The Edo-Tokyo Museum presents Tokyo’s history from the Edo period to the present through exhibits, models, and interactive displays.

Planning your visit

The Edo-Tokyo Museum tells the story of the city from 1590, when Tokugawa Ieyasu made a marshy fishing village his base, through the Edo period when it became the largest city in the world, the Meiji transformation, the 1923 earthquake, the firebombing of 1945 and the postwar rebuilding.

Its method is scale models and full-size reconstructions rather than cases: a life-size replica of the Nihonbashi bridge that visitors cross to enter the exhibition, a kabuki theatre facade, a tenement row house showing how ordinary Edo families actually lived in a few square metres, and detailed miniature reconstructions of whole districts.

The building itself is unmissable — a vast elevated structure on four legs in Ryogoku, near the sumo stadium, designed to evoke a raised warehouse.

The critical practical point: the museum closed in 2022 for a lengthy major renovation and has not been continuously open since. Checking current status before planning a visit is essential.

The related Fukagawa Edo Museum nearby offers a comparable experience at smaller scale in the meantime.

Bookable options where operating include entry tickets and guided tours combining the museum with the surrounding Kiyosumi-Shirakawa district. Current availability is shown below.