Edo-Tokyo Museum’s reopened Permanent Exhibition

Edo-Tokyo Museum (江戸東京博物館) in Ryogoku, Tokyo finally reopened on March 31, 2026 after four years of major renovations. For the past four years, we had to scratch off this museum as a must-see attraction in Tokyo. But now, it’s bound to regain its status as a major tourist attraction as it reappears on the tourist radar.

The first few days of the reopening saw very long lines of people waiting to enter the museum. By late April though, I found it quick and easy to buy museum tickets at the door. No long lines.

The museum building looks the same on the outside, but the inside has been renovated and modernized with a number of new and renovated exhibits large and small and some changes in the layout.

First opened in March 1993, Edo-Tokyo Museum exhibits a comprehensive collection of artifacts, replicas, dioramas and scale models, art works (especially ukiyoe prints), handicrafts, and panel displays explaining Edo and Tokyo’s feudal and modern history, culture, art, and everyday life. It’s a huge museum in both scale and scope.

“Edo” is Tokyo’s former name when it was Japan’s military capital when the Tokugawa samurai government (shogunate or bakufu) ruled Japan from the early 17th century to 1868. This peaceful period of Japanese history is called the Edo Period, named after the capital city. The government and shogun were based in Edo Castle, now known as the Imperial Palace.

Entrance path to the museum. — New entry way to the museum.

Must-see museum for anyone interested in the Edo Period, samurai culture or government, or the history of Tokyo.

Museum entrance hall (1st floor). Ticket machines on the right. Gift shop on the left.

Museum hours: 9:30 am – 5:30 pm (7:30 pm on Sat.) (enter by 30 min. before closing), closed Mondays (open if a national holiday and closed on the next weekday instead). (Open on May 4, 2026 and closed on May 7, 2026.)
Permanent exhibition admission: ¥800 for adults, ¥400 for age 65 and older, ¥480 for college students, ¥300 for high school students, free for junior high school and younger.
Address: 1-4-1 Yokoami, Sumida-ku, Tokyo 130-0015 (Near JR Ryogoku Station)
Map: https://maps.app.goo.gl/JbLQP9NgtDaUtSLw5
Phone: +81 3-3626-9974
Website: https://www.edo-tokyo-museum.or.jp/en/

Gift shop and rest area on the left, ticket machines on the right.

Gift shop and rest area on the left, ticket machines on the right.

The museum has the Permanent Exhibition (6th and 5th floors) and Special Exhibition (1st floor). If you’ve visited the museum before, you may wonder what has changed.

The good news is that the museum’s best permanent exhibits have been retained including the life-size, wooden replica of Nihonbashi Bridge, Nakamura-za kabuki theater facade, scale models of Edo Castle and palace, samurai armor, Sukeroku kabuki stage, and vintage vehicles. Interactive exhibits for selfies such as rickshaws to sit in and balance poles to lift up are also there.

Here’s a basic overview of what’s new and what’s the same in the Permanent Exhibition after four years of renovations as of April 2026.

(To read about the Special Exhibition, see this post.)

Permanent Exhibition

Take the elevator to the 6th floor to see the Permanent exhibition.

The Permanent Exhibition is on the 6th and 5th floors. It consists of the Edo Zone covering the Edo Period (1600s-1868), Tokyo Zone covering the modern period, and Feature Exhibition Gallery for changing exhibitions. Take the elevator up to the 6h floor, then work your way down.

It’s an exhaustive collection where you can easily spend all afternoon or all day.

Crossing Nihonbashi Bridge past the Hattori clock shop on the right side.

On the 6th floor, show your ticket and cross Nihonbashi Bridge while enjoying projected views of Edo skies and the new Hattori clock shop and clock tower (Hattori Tokeiten). Hattori is better known as watchmaker Seiko.

View of Hattori clock shop and clock tower (Hattori Tokeiten) from Nihonbashi Bridge. (服部時計店)

Nihonbashi Bridge leads to a line of white noren curtains. — Nihonbashi Bridge leads to a line of white *noren* curtains.

The far end of Nihonbashi Bridge has a long line of white noren curtains below a changing view of Edo skies.

Edo Zone

Behind the noren curtains is a large exhibition space of samurai armor and dioramas and scale models of daimyo residences and Edo Castle. Fourteen sets of samurai armor from the museum’s collection are displayed on the right end.

The Edo Zone explains how Edo was very much a city of samurai warlords.

Samurai helmet decorated with a gold praying mantis.

Diorama of Nihonbashi. This has been retained as before.

Scale model of Edo Castle and palace buildings in red. The palace area is now a large lawn in the Imperial Palace East Gardens.

Lots of panel displays explaining about many aspects of Edo and Edo/samurai culture.

Ornate palanquin used by important samurai women. Also retained after museum renovations. Nearby is a palanquin you can sit inside for selfies.

Terakoya or temple school — *Terakoya* or temple school for kids before the public education system was invented.

Ryogoku Bridge diorama and Kanda Myojin float replica. — Ryogoku Bridge diorama and Kanda Myojin Shrine float replica.

Diorama of Ryogoku Bridge over Sumida River also retained.

Life-size replica of festival float from Kanda Myojin Shrine. Also a holdover from before renovations.

Feature Exhibition Gallery showing 100 Famous Views of Edo — **Feature Exhibition Gallery** showing ***100 Famous Views of Edo*** with ukiyoe prints by Hiroshige. All 120 prints are displayed.

Kameido Tenjin shrine wisteria, from 100 Famous Views of Edo by Hiroshige. — Kameido Tenjin shrine wisteria, from ***100 Famous Views of Edo*** by Hiroshige.

Kabuki play Sukeroku. — Kabuki play *Sukeroku.*

This stage reproducing the famous Sukeroku kabuki play has also been retained in the museum. Life-size mannequins depicting courtesan Agemaki, her two child attendants called kamuro, and the bearded Ikyu.

Facade of Nakamura-za kabuki theater. Revamped with a corridor to enter the facade from the right side.

Inside Facade of Nakamura-za — Kabuki musical instruments displayed inside Nakamura-za. There’s also a scale model of Nakamura-za under Nihonbashi Bridge.

Tokyo Zone

K. Hattori clock shop (服部時計店)

The museum’s largest new exhibit is the facade of K. Hattori clock shop and clock tower. It was a Ginza landmark from when it was built in 1895.

In 1895, the Hattori clock shop and clock tower was built by expanding the existing Choya Shimbun (朝野新聞) newspaper office in the same location. Choya Shimbun ceased publication in 1893, and Hattori Kintaro bought the building in 1894 for his shop selling and repairing imported watches.

The Hattori clock shop and tower was designed by Ito Tamekichi who studied architecture in America from 1885 to 1888 under G.V. Capelletti in San Francisco.

The Hattori clock shop was demolished in 1921 to make way for a new head office building which was finally built in 1932. This is the current Wako building in Ginza which miraculously survived World War II.

Choya Shimbun newspaper office replica before being replaced by Hattori clock shop.

The museum actually had the Choya Shimbun office facade at this location before the renovations. As in real life, it was replaced by the Hattori clock shop. Perhaps when the museum is renovated again in 30 years, they will have the Wako building facade.

One major difference is that the Choya Shimbun office facade had nothing inside. We could not enter it. However, the Hattori clock shop facade has a door which we can enter to see a large exhibition space.

The Hattori clock shop interior is a very roomy exhibition space. It includes several large exhibits including a glass floor exhibit. The space centers on Western architecture and relics.

There’s museum staff giving a short talk about a few of the following exhibits.

Inside the Hattori clock shop, the glass floor exhibit shows an overhead view of the Rokumeikan, a Western-style guesthouse and ballroom used to entertain important state guests. Built in 1883 in Hibiya near the Imperial Palace. The building was demolished in 1941.