Experts' Choice Award Shitamachi Museum
What the experts agree on
This museum resurrects Tokyo's vanished working-class Shitamachi district through recreated streets and homes, capturing ordinary Tokyoites' lives from the Meiji era through the 1923 earthquake—before wartime bombing erased it forever.
“Japanese society in the days of the Tokugawa shoguns was rigidly stratified. Some 80% of the city's land was allotted to the warrior class, temples, and shrines.”
– Fodor's
Time Out "This museum presents the living environment of ordinary Tokyoites between the pivotal Meiji restoration of 1868 and the Great Earthquake of 1923." Full review
Michelin Guide 1 Star
"This museum takes you back to a lost world by recreating the working-class district of Shitamachi, which was razed to the ground by the 1945 bombings." Full review
i
The visit can take a funny turn when you are given the chance to try on traditional clothes.
Atlas Obscura "A museum dedicated to the history of Tokyo's often-overlooked working-class district. " Full review
Frommer's "Shitamachi means "downtown" and refers to the area of Tokyo in which commoners used to live, mainly around Ueno and Asakusa." Full review
National Geographic "The reconstructions of Edo-era streets at the Shitamachi Museum are a standout among Tokyo's best museums in and around Ueno Park"
