Tokyo · Koganei
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
The Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum (江戸東京たてもの園) opened on 28 March 1993 inside Koganei Park, as a branch of the Edo-Tokyo Museum. On about seven hectares stand 30 buildings that were taken apart at their original sites and reassembled here, from the Edo period to the middle of the Showa period: farmhouses, villas of officials and wealthy families, modern houses from the early twentieth century, and a whole street of shops from old Tokyo. You can go inside most of the buildings.
In the east of the grounds stands the shopping street: a public bathhouse, Kodakara-yu, built in 1929 in the Adachi neighborhood, and a stationery shop, Takei Sanshodo, founded in the early Meiji period in Kanda, with a wall of small wooden drawers for storing brushes. Many guides mention these two buildings as an inspiration for Ghibli's Spirited Away, the bathhouse for the film's bathhouse and the drawers for Kamaji's boiler room. We found no official confirmation of this from the studio or the museum.
The documented link to Ghibli is more modest: the museum's mascot, a green insect called Edomaru, was designed by Hayao Miyazaki, and in 2014 the Ghibli buildings exhibition was shown here. The buildings themselves are worth seeing for what they are: the museum moves here historic buildings that could not be preserved where they stood.
Good to know
- From the North Exit of Musashi-Koganei, take a Seibu bus from stops 2 or 3 (lines 武12, 武13, 武15, 武21), five minutes' ride, get off at Koganei Koen Nishiguchi (小金井公園西口) and walk five minutes. The walk from the station alone is 20 to 30 minutes.
- The Jisho-in mausoleum building (旧自証院霊屋) is closed to visitors for renovation from 1 September 2026 until about the end of March 2027.
- Photography for personal use is allowed in most buildings, but no tripod and no flash inside the buildings.
- No eating inside the buildings. There are benches with tables for those who bring food.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum.
- HereEdo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum
- 1 min
Koganei Park More to see
A huge park of about 80 hectares, free, with about 1,400 cherry trees of about 50 varieties, lawns, a C57 steam locomotive on display and a sled slope on artificial grass (from age 6, sleds are not rented and are sold at the kiosk). The cherry blossom festival is at the end of March.
- ~3 min
Musashino Sabo (De Lalande House) Cafe
A cafe inside a restored Taisho-period house in the western area of the museum, with a terrace. Organic coffee 830 yen, curry rice 1,320 yen. A museum entry ticket is required.
- ~5 min
Tabemono-dokoro Kura (inside the museum) Food
A handmade udon restaurant in the style of the Musashino area, on the 2nd floor of a storehouse building on the shitamachi street in the eastern area of the museum. Musashino tsuke-udon, noodles for dipping, at 750 yen. A museum entry ticket is required.
- ~8 min
Tamagawa Josui and Koganei-bashi (Koganei Sakura) More to see
The historic water canal that runs along the southern side of the park. The row of cherry trees along it is registered as a national Place of Scenic Beauty, and Koganei Bridge appeared in woodblock prints as a place to view the blossoms. The current bridge is from 2008.