Metabolism in Tokyo (it's not what you think)

a Wikimedia Commons file (not my own photo)

We visited the permanent exhibition of the Edo-Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku on theTaiiku no Hi (Sports and Health Day) holiday. The museum, as the name suggests depicts the history of the development of Tokyo over several centuries and also houses a number of exhibits and photographs from the 1964 Tokyo Olympic Games. I learned after our visit that the Taiiku no Hi holiday (celebrated on October 14th this year) was established to commemorate the anniversary of the Opening Ceremony for the Tokyo Games, a happy coincidence which appealed to me.

It is an arresting structure which reveals itself more as you draw closer. We came upon it from street-level on our bicycles. This Google Map street view here gives you a better feel for the atmosphere. We had to ride along the right, very long side of the building to reach the parking area. It is an enormous building but it can be forgiven as it is more than simply a museum. It is combined with the Ryogoku Station run by Japan Railways (JR) East.

Inside the museum, we went to the sixth floor where we encountered the highest ceilings I have ever seen in a public building outside of a sports stadiums. There is a life-size replica of the Nihonbashi bridge, which even while it has an imposing height, does not explain the need for such towering upper limits. We marvelled at the design and since construction was completed in 1993, we concluded (wrongly it turns out), it must be a relic of the bubble economy Japan experienced in the eighties.

I would highly recommend this museum as it has a vast range of exhibits with detailed English captions (unusual for Japan). The museum initially appears to be more for children's entertainment, however, I soon discovered its depth. I picked up all sorts of fascinating facts and connected in my head a few more pieces of the jigsaw puzzle of Tokyo's timeline. There is an area dedicated to war history, and I was awed when I happened upon the Instrument of Surrender for WWII in one of the showcases. I could not believe it was the original at first but I checked and it was. It was signed by Australian representative Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey .I quickly took some pictures (yes, this museum allows photos) and moved along.

Another highlight was the above replica of the Dai-Ichi National Bank which was designed and built in 1872 by my husband's company. I liked the Kabuki-theatre also, and there was a section of Olympic memorabilia but I neglected to search for a photograph of Dawn Fraser's (Australian Swimming Olympian).

Leaving the permanent exhibition's unique edifice involved riding the longest escalator I have ever been on. It really was rather surreal. Of course, I was intrigued by the design.

We walked off the escalator to an open-air section on the third floor of the building just as the sun was setting. If you return and look at the first photo in this blog you can see this floor just about the museum's sign (the Chinese characters) to the front of the museum. Engineer husband lamented the lost space and I wondered if there are ever enough student-tours at the one time to warrant such an expanse of space.

For my friends who also love good buildings, I checked out the architect of the building. His name was Kiyonori Kikutake (see his Wikipedia entry here). He was a member of an architectual movement called Metabolism (see here) which started in the 1950s in Japan that "fused ideas about architectual megastructures with those of organic growth", according to Wikipedia. Aha, I thought when I read that, "The scale of the building was an intentional design feature". One last link for luck which I confess, I have yet to watch but I will, is this Harvard lecture explaining Metabolism. It is not what you thought, right?