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Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum
1-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 130-0015
TEL.+81-3-3626-9974(General Information)

Feb. 16 Fri. 2024 No.28
The Tokyo Metropolitan Edo-Tokyo Museum is scheduled to be closed for major renovations until 2025.

Museum on TourOur permanent exhibitions include interactive models. No "look but don't touch"policy here — visitors can touch and feel these exhibits for a more participatory
museum experience. While Edo-Tokyo Museum is closed for renovation, some of theexhibits are toured as a part of the Mobile Edo-Tokyo Museum, or are exhibited atother museums, giving the public a flavor of Edo-Tokyo's history and culture.

Soba stall (replica)

Sushi stall (replica)

Rickshaw (replica)

Box for gold coins (replica)

Presenter dressed in restored period costume

Activity
ReportMobile Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ōshima Island

May 20–28, 2023 Oshima Town General Development Center

As in 2022, 2023 saw a number of touring exhibitions and workshops at venues acrossTokyo. This year, we held many of these events in non-school venues.
In May 2023, Mobile Edo-Tokyo Museum came to the island of Izu Ōshima. Thevenue was a large conference area in Oshima Town General Development Center,
which adjoins the town's municipal office. With the generous support of Ōshima
Town's board of education, we held this touring exhibition on an impressive scale.
The exhibition consisted of a compact array of panels, models, and replicas from themuseum's permanent exhibitions, showcasing Edo-Tokyo from the beginning of theEdo period (1603) to the end of the mid-Showa period (1945-1965). It also featured
replica models such as a soba stall and rickshaw. We had to transport these models
by container, but we felt it was well worth the effort given how much interest these
replicas attracted at the museum's regular exhibition.
The touring exhibition welcomed students from island's schools, including
6th grade students from (ages 11–12) and high schoolers (ages 15–18) on someweekdays. We also held workshops. In one, visitors could interact with a hand-cranked
gramophone. In another, they could interact with a vintage rotary phone known as akuro-denwa (black telephone). Over the nine days, a total of 796 people came.
Tsuda Hiroko, Curator

Building
Partnerships

Japanese Liaison Council of History and Folk Museums
Holds 2023 Gathering in Okinawa

The Japanese Liaison Council of History and Folk Museums is a national network ofhistory and folk museums. One of its purposes is to safeguard cultural heritage against
disasters. The liaison council has 817 affiliated museums grouped into nine regional
blocs, each of which takes a turn in hosting the council's annual gatherings. Theseannual gatherings were suspended during the pandemic years.
On July 13 and 14, 2023, however, the council held its first in-person annual
gathering in four years. The venue was at the Okinawa Prefectural Museum and Art
Museum in Naha. Each annual conference includes a general meeting and executive
meetings to discuss the running of the council. It also includes a conference forpresenting academic work. The theme for this year's conference was case studies inOkinawa for preserving and creating culture.
The four presenters discussed the reconstruction of Shuri Castle, which wasdestroyed by fire in 2019, and efforts to restore the cultural heritage that was damaged
at that time. They also talked about efforts to preserve and promote the use of thecultural and folk heritage of the war-ravaged Ryukyu Kingdom. The audience saw
footage of the blaze that engulfed Shuri Castle, saw a reproduction of garments
illustrating the sartorial handiwork of the Ryukyu Kingdom, and heard audio
narrations of Okinawa folklore. This engaging content hooked the audience much
more than any online presentation could.
The level of audience engagement testified to the value of face-to-face gatherings. The
annual gathering marked an important step forward in safeguarding cultural heritage
against disasters and in furthering collaboration between the affiliated museums.
Tahara Noboru, CuratorR e se a r c h S t rol l s

The Phantom Japan thatWesterners Depicted

Text by Taki Ryosuke, Curator

Illustrations from Arnoldus Montanus’s Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maatschappy in ’t Vereenigde Nederland, aan de Kaisaren van Japan.
Left: “The Emperor’s Throne” (The Audience of the Shogun) Right: “Pauromama”

The 17th century saw a publishing boom in Western Europe. During this period,
many books about Japan were published, bringing knowledge of the country
to the European populace. Among these, the most seminal text on Japan was
Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen ("remarkable addresses"). Authored by Arnoldus
Montanus (1625–83), Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen was originally published inDutch in 1669.
The book describes what officials from the Dutch East India Company
encountered on their travels from the port of Nagasaki to the capital Edo. It also gives
an account of Japanese history and culture and the lifestyles and beliefs of the people.
Montanus never visited Japan himself; he based his accounts on the journals ofcompany officials and on compilations of past Jesuit reports. Nonetheless, Montanus
narrated events as if he was actually there, resulting in a vivid travelogue. Based onMontanus' extensive documentary research, the book incorporated an unprecedented
amount of material, including material that was unpublished at the time.
But what distinguishes the book most of all is its rich illustrations. The bookfeatures nearly 100 copper engravings. No other publication in early-modern
Western Europe contained so many illustrations of Japan. However, since neither
Montanus nor the illustrator ever visited Japan, none of these illustrations were basedon observation. Many are fanciful and exaggerated. A case in point is an illustration
titled The Emperor's Throne (Des Kaisars Throon), which depicts an audience withthe Tokugawa shogun. The illustration was lambasted by Engelbert Kaempfer, aGerman naturalist who had actually attended an audience with the 5th Tokugawa

Touring exhibitions

Exhibition in other locations,February 21–25, 2024

"Visiting Exhibition by the Edo-Tokyo Museum"
The Edo-Tokyo Museum first opened on March 28,
1993, to provide a space for reflecting upon TokyoEdo's history and culture and for thinking about thefuture of life in the metropolis. Three decades later, themuseum is now undergoing major renovation work. It
is scheduled to reopen in 2025. During this closure,some of the permanent exhibitions remain accessible tothe public at the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum inUeno.
Exhibited here are items from the Edo-Tokyo Museum

shogun, Tsunayoshi.
Despite their inaccuracies, the illustrations remained for many years a source ofknowledge about Japan in the West as a whole. An illustration featured, for example,
in a 19th-century US periodical, Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion, ata time when Japan was in its Bakumatsu
period (the last years of the Tokugawashogunate) and beginning to open itself tothe outside world.
The illustration in question depicts amountain rising from Lake Biwa. In theperiodical, it is titled "Pauromama, orMount of Pleasure, in Japan." The pictureappeared in two editions of the Gleason's
Pictorial (July 22, 1854, and March 10,1860). As fanciful as the vista appears, thewriter of the article praises its picturesquebeauty and suggests that it would be a finedestination for a summer holiday. At a time
when Japan was finally revealing itself tooutsiders, an illustration such as this would
have piqued interest in what to Westerners
remained a new and exciting world.
Gleason’s Pictorial, July 22, 1854. Boston Public Library

Venue: Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum
Citizen's Gallery 4 on the LBF,
Citizen's Gallery 4 on the 1F,
Citizen's Gallery 4 on the 2F

collection along with crowd-pleasing interactive replicas
from the permanent exhibitions, including Box forgold coins and rickshaw, and other interactive replica
exhibitions. There is also a special exhibition that
includes nishiki-e (woodblock prints) and illustrated
books that offer insight into the history of Ueno, where
the exhibition is held.
Come and see Edo-Tokyo Museum's richly varied
collection and encounter the history and culture ofEdo-Tokyo.