When Hayao Miyazaki was looking for inspiration for his animated film "Spirited Away" one of his favorite spots was a place called the Edo Tokyo Outdoor Architectural Museum. (It's a mouthful so I will just call it Edo Outdoor Museum from now on.) This museum is a marvel, a branch of the fabulous Edo Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku which I visited the last time we are here. The outdoor museum is located just a half-hours train ride from Tokyo Station in Koganei Park and features some 18 structures relocated from all over Japan representing periods of design from ancient times to modern ones.
With the way it is set up in the park, one can walk from one place to the next in two hours or spend longer looking around. Miyazaki himself used a particular area of the museum for inspiration of the theme park and bathhouse for Japanese spirits in "Spirited Away." You can see the bathhouse in the image above, with the street leading up to it featuring businesses set up just as they would in an actual working town at the turn of the century.
All the houses are open to the public to walk through and some have furnishings to give them the feel of a "lived in" look. It is very close to a living history museum but without people in costume. You have to take your shoes off inside many of these places but its fascinating to see western style influences in Japanese homes.
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| One of the more modern houses, but it had a nice open floor plan and feel. |
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| This was a lovely house with two separate stories and an open floor plan |
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| This is a beautiful fireplace inside one of the houses, this one was built by German immigrants. |
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| A western style house |
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| Even in a western styled house, there are touches of Japanese design like this room with tatami mat floors |
There are some beautiful Japanese style houses as well which stick to traditional lines and building materials. These are always my favorites. One walks inside to tatami mat floors, paper screens and wooden shelves. There is a simplicity and beauty to this plan. The building below was once a home for the first finance minister of Japan, and he was assassinated inside. Like all the buildings, it was relocated from its original spot, and the effort taken to reconstruct the house and the adjacent garden is incredible.
The whole museum is a testament to Japanese ingenuity, and with the cherry blossoms in bloom, coupled with the park like setting, it made for a beautiful morning trip.
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A more traditional Japanese-Style mansion
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| Garden behind the mansion |
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| Cherry Blossoms just starting to bud |
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| Thatched roof style farmhouse |
If the buildings are a treasure to explore, it is the people who work at this museum that are a jewel. One of the first people we met was a little man who walked right up to us and asked us where we were from. He engaged us, talked about our own state, about our last trip and told us a great deal of information about the houses. He spoke some fractured English, but he was so engaging and friendly that it was just a pleasure to talk to him.
We ran into him again in one of the thatched style farmhouses. He invited us to sit around the hearth, with a fire over a bubbling pot of some kind of soup. With the smoke, it was a little hard to sit there, but we talked for a little while with him before we were driven out. It was nice of them to offer us a place, I only wish the smoke wasn't as strong. Fires like this are kept in houses to drive away insects and to keep the thatch strong since the soot acts like a bonding agent.
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| This wonderful man sat and talked with us for quite a while |
There are dozens of smaller structures ranging from a police box to tombs to lanterns. One of the more interesting pieces was an old cablecar. This was the precursor to the Tokyo Subway system, and it sits at a sort of station as if waiting for patrons to climb aboard for a ride.
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| Police box (This place had a tiny area for sleeping inside it too) |
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| Tokyo Cablecar |
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| I found this image on the net of Miyazaki at the museum, with a picture of a character from his novie |
The most famous area of the Tokyo Outdoor Museum, and perhaps the most iconic is the main "business" street leading up to the bathhouse. It is here Hayao Miyazaki came for inspiration in "Spirited Away." The street itself is simple, with shops set up on either side in the way they would be in any small town or even in Tokyo at the turn of the century. There is the general store, jewelry store, stationary store, an umbrella maker, an inn, a soy shop, a warehouse (with an udon shop in it) a flower shop, and at the back center is the bathhouse itself.
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| Street from Spirited Away (Image copyright Studio Ghibli) |
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| Back alley section of houses |
Walking down the street, you could close your eyes and feel like you are in a working town far more than the rest of the museum. The shops are set up with "wares" like pots, pans, bonito (a fish used for miso soup) and other things. Our first stop was by the Jewelry store. This building featured a star on the top I mistook for the Jewish Star of David, but we were informed this star is actually something from Japanese religion. I've never heard of it before but I will trust in what they told us.
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| Shrapnel marks |
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Jewelry Store. Note the star above, this is not a star of David, but something the Japanese have had for ages. This store had damage from bomb shrapnel that hit it in World War II.
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Just beyond the jewelry Store were a few other businesses like the hardware and general goods store. Here the simple sundries of daily life in Japan were on display like they should be. You could go into stores now and some of the things sold wouldn't have changed much in 100 years.
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| General Goods store |
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| Inside the General Goods store. Note the bonito in the back, the squid displays. Not real of course but this is how it would be stocked. |
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| Hardware store |
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| Inside the hardware store |
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| Inside the Umbrella Shop |
One place of unique note on the street was the Stationary Store which stood between the warehouse and the flower shop. Most of these businesses were set up with the main mercantile on street level and then the family would live on the upper floors with storage on the top.
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| Flower Shop (Right) Stationary Shop (left) |
I mention the stationary store in particular because it had a few interesting features. One it had a basement that you could just barely see, and the owners would keep supplies like ink down there where they could be cool. The second interesting feature, other than the many brushes, was the bank of boxlike storage bins. Each of these bins could hold hundreds of brushes, but the bins themselves were inspiration for Miyazaki as well. He used a similar design for bins in his bathhouse in spirited away.
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| Inside the Stationary Store. Note these boxlike shelves. This was another inspiration in Spirited Away. |
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| Detail from "Spirited Away" you can see the boxes on the right (Image copyright Studio Ghibli) |
It is interesting to explore these places and recall scenes from the movie. That the director considers this place a wonderful location for inspiration is well known in Japan. There were other neat buildings as well like the Tavern and the Inn. These would be staples in any town or on roads leading from place to place. A spot where weary travelers could rest and unwind.
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| Inside the Tavern. |
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| A Highway Inn. |
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| Inside the Highway Inn |
If there is a heart to the Edo Tokyo Museum, or any town at the turn of the century, it is the bathhouse. The building is built like a temple, with a sweeping arched doorway, vaulted ceilings like you would see in actual Buddhist temples and quiet gardens nestled on either side's changing area. The Japanese love bathing, it is a time when the quandaries of life melt away in hot water bliss and the social classes disappear. I believe there is a Japanese saying that everyone is equals when they are naked in the bath.
This is a lovely bathhouse, and there used to be many of these all over the place, even in Tokyo up until recently. You can still find some here or there, but the public bath is more rare now. The structure at the museum occupies its spot at the end of the street as a focal point because in any town it would be. Walk inside and you are greeted by a lovely tile fresco of a man and woman at rest beneath a tree.
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| The Bathhouse |
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| Tile detail on the inside of the bathhouse |
Beyond the wooden changing areas, with their garden vantage points, one walks into the actual bathing area with the deep basins where water would bubble around. Framing this at the back are beautiful paintings of bays on the women's side and mount Fuji on the mens. The low areas between are for actual washing and getting clean, the bath is only for relaxing in Japan.
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| Women's side of bathhouse, with a beautiful painting. |
One of the fun details I enjoyed were the tile artwork. Both the men's and women's side had little tile frescos that depicted Japanese fables. The women's side were my favorite as I recognized them and they were vibrantly delightful depictions.
The first was of the tale of "The Tongue Cut Sparrow" which is a combination of the western myth of Pandora's box and something out of Aesops Fables. The scene shows a family of friendly sparrows all dressed up like people bidding a farmer goodbye as he carries his box of treasures back home to his wife. The depiction of animals in human garb is just charming and the colors and details are beautiful. I especially liked the little one just beside him with the hair ribbon in her feathers.
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| Tile Display on women's side. The Japanese Fable of "The Tongue Cut Sparrow." |
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| Detail of the Tongue Cut Sparrow |
Next to the "Tongue Cut Sparrow" was a tile fresco depicting a fable I believe is called "The Monkey and the Persimmons." As one can guess, it depicts both a monkey and a persimmon tree, but there are two more unusual characters in the scene. First is a fellow with a head that looks like a wooden bowl and second is what looks like a crab on top of a man's body. They are both wrestling the monkey to the ground, tying him up (for stealing the fruit I think.)
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| Women's Bathroom Side tile display. Japanese Fable "The Monkey and the Persimmons." |
I was just taken aback with the humor of seeing the crab with its many feet and claws sitting on top of a human body. It looks like a person wore the crab as a hat, but this is actually an anthropomorphized ideal just like the sparrows were. The same with the bowl shaped fellow which I think is a mortar used for making sweet rice cakes.
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| Crab Samurai? |
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| Apparently this is an anthropomorphic pestle for making moochi (rice cakes) |
The men's side had other tile stories I didn't know, but the real treat was seeing the mural of mount Fuji. I could imagine people settled down after a long day of work, letting their worries drift away in the warm water. I noted to my parents one of our journeys would take us to a place where we had to use a bath like this. That is a story for another day however. We left the bathhouse and wandered through the main museum building, taking in pictures of the park in spring along with wonderful laquerware that was on display.
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| Men's Side Mural of Mount Fuji. |
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| Beautiful Laquerware |
We walked back through the park and found a lovely spot to eat inside the warehouse building on the bathhouse street. This tiny place is nestled on the second story, with a prepay box where you put in some yen and present a ticket to the owner. In return you get a bowl of piping hot udon noodles with fresh vegetables.
After a lot of walking and exploring, this was the perfect place to sit down and relax a bit and talk about all we'd seen.
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| Delicious Udon Soup served in the shop on top of the warehouse building. |
Taking a trip through the Edo Tokyo Outdoor Museum is like stepping back in time. One can close their eyes and picture people going about their everyday lives in the spaces and places surrounding the structures. At the same time, one can imagine Hayao Miyazaki's fantastic creatures coming to life here when things are dark and quiet. We can see them working in the kitchens, buying groceries or enjoying a bath.
The museum is an escape from the ordinary, well worth a visit for adults and children alike. Like anything in Japan or travel in general, go early so you have the park to yourself.
Address: 3-7-1 Sakuracho, Koganei, Tokyo 184-0005, Japan
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| The Museum's Main Entrance, it is made to look like a palace used in the Heian Era. |
