Museums in Japan

Discover 79 unusual museums in Japan.

Colorful, design forward displays.

Museum of Package Culture

Discover the past, present, and future of packaging in this unique Japanese museum.

Wooden kappa

Shimanto-chō, Japan

Kaiyodo Kappa Museum

A whimsical museum dedicated to the mischievous kappa, a mythical cucumber-loving water sprite.

The gates of Nobuko Yoshiya's house-turned-museum.

Kamakura, Japan

Yoshiya Nobuko Memorial Museum

The former home of queer novelist Yoshiya Nobuko memorializes her contributions to modern-day manga.

"The Large Glass" on display at the museum.

Replica of Duchamp's 'The Large Glass'

One of three official copies of Marcel Duchamp's enigmatic masterpiece is on display in an obscure Tokyo museum.

Kite Museum.

Museum of Kites

This tiny museum hidden above a restaurant houses thousands of modern and traditional kites.

Shitamachi Museum

A museum dedicated to the history of Tokyo's often-overlooked working-class district.

Permanently Closed

The studio's signature sign.

Ukiyoe Small Museum

A tiny collection of traditional Japanese woodblock prints, open only when the owner feels like it.

The entrance on the 2nd floor.

Intermediatheque

An unexpected curiosity cabinet hidden within a department store in the Japan Post tower.

A variety of tools on display.

Takenaka Carpentry Tools Museum

A collection of the specialized tools used to construct Japan’s beautiful architecture.

Sample food at Sample Kobo.

Gujō-shi, Japan

Sample Kobo

Make your own fake treats at this factory and workshop in the epicenter of Japan's food replica industry.

Permanently Closed

The dome in the bay

Suminoe-ku, Japan

Osaka Maritime Museum

An abandoned giant glass dome sits in the bay in “the Venice of the East.”

Museum exhibition and a clock that stopped when the bomb dropped.

Nagasaki, Japan

Atomic Bomb Medical Museum

A sobering scientific reminder of the human damage caused by the advent of the nuclear age.

Specimens on display.

Nagasaki, Japan

Museum of Tropical Medicine

A hub of information on tropical diseases and their treatments.

Decorative brushes at the Kumano Brush Festival.

Kumano-chō, Japan

Fudenosato Kobo Brush Museum

This little town supplies Japan with most of its calligraphy brushes, still made by hand from animal fur.

Little World Museum of Man

An anthropological theme park that depicts the cultures of around 20 different countries.

Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum

Thirty architectural gems from the 19th- and early 20th-century Tokyo were restored and relocated to this space.