Learn About Tokyo History at This Ueno Park Museum

The term “Shitamachi” is important to understanding the lay of the land in Tokyo, referring to the once-swampy lowlands that make up much of eastern Tokyo. When the broader area was declared the capital of Japan in the 1600s, then using the name “Edo,” a huge influx of fresh faces arrived on the scene – to show fealty to the new regime, and to build the new city from the ground up. Rich samurai nobles constructed their palaces on the airy hills in the west (called “”Yamanote””), far from the smelly, dangerous body of water we now know as Tokyo Bay, and the many workers, craftsmen, and merchants who showed up to do all the labor of getting a new capital running, they settled in the marshy Shitamachi floodplains where the city’s rivers met the bay. (A great place for eels! Not so much for humans.) Over the centuries, the community grew, jobs changed, “Edo” became “Tokyo,” and history transformed the city into the modern metropolis we see today. But many parts of Shitamachi have maintained a hint of the historic working-class community, still providing a home for many of Tokyo’s traditional artisans, and offering a very different vibe from traditional Yamanote areas (like Akasaka or Aoyama).

The Shitamachi Museum is dedicated to helping people understand the history, culture, and traditions of Tokyo’s Shitamachi area, especially the neighborhoods surrounding Ueno and Asakusa. But the overall result is a fascinating look at the story of Tokyo through the eyes of its average citizens, instead of just the grand proclamations of samurai nobility and politicians! After years of renovations, the museum reopened in 2025 to welcome visitors with a variety of sleek modern exhibits and an immersive area designed to replicate traditional Shitamachi, with excellent English signage too. Located on the bank of Ueno Park’s Shinobazu Pond, just a few minutes on foot from Ueno Station, the Shitamachi Museum can now confidently join the ranks of amazing Ueno Park museums you won’t want to miss while planning your trip to Tokyo!

Museum Highlights: Get a Better Sense of Tokyo in 3 Floors

1st Floor: Experience Traditional Tokyo Home Life

The Shitamachi Museum transports you to another time from the moment you step past the lobby, placing the most visually impressive spectacle right in front of your eyes as soon as you enter the building. The first-floor exhibit is an amazing replica of the Sakamoto neighborhood (just north of Ueno Park) from the mid-point of Japan’s Showa period, showing a glimpse of everyday life along Kanasugi-dori Street around the late 1950s. This part of Shitamachi was spared from the destruction of the Great Kanto Earthquake in the 1920s and WWII air raids, so the museum’s replica home and lantern shop show how locals lived in traditional buildings until surprisingly recent times.

It’s a feast for the eyes, from the beautifully replicated architecture to touches like the alleyway waterpump, but the real treat is how you can look AND touch! This may be a museum, but the signs simply ask you to be gentle – you’re welcome to take off your shoes and enter the buildings themselves, opening doors, checking the contents of cupboards, and snooping around the rooms in a way that feels thrilling and a little sneaky. You can totally immerse yourself in the Tokyo of 70 years ago, making it a great way to whet your appetite for the other museum exhibits to come.

2nd Floor: Explore Tokyo History From a Fresh New Perspective

Climb the stairs (or take the elevator) up to the 2nd floor, and you’ll be greeted by a broad display of everyday items carefully arranged in front of a large screen. The video exhibit includes a quick introduction to Tokyo history, with historic photographs and a traditional “sugoroku” board game theme, followed by a lovely animation showing how each of the everyday items below was used by people in their daily lives, following a sweet kitten through their own Shitamachi journey. But this all acts as just a preview for the main exhibit room, where history lovers will probably spend the most time of all.

The permanent exhibition is a full room dedicated to Shitamachi history, starting with the early days of the Edo period all the way up through the Tokyo Olympics of 1964. But this is no bland timeline – the room follows the lives of the people, allowing museum visitors a peek into the curiosity citizens felt over Japan’s first escalator (temporarily installed in Ueno Park in the 1800s!), a glimpse of pure obsession of “”Asakusa Opera”” fans in the Taisho era, a moment to share in the horrors of the Great Kanto Earthquake, and a chance to share in the passion and excitement even working-class citizens felt when adopting new technologies (you were a modern household when you had a black and white TV, a refrigerator, and a washing machine)! The exhibit includes enough maps, historic photos, illustrations, artifacts, and good English signage to keep any history lover absorbed all the way through.

3rd Floor: Get Hands-On!

The top floor of the museum is split into two areas, a temporary exhibition space and a sort of hands-on rest area. The exhibition space displays a rotating special exhibition, and during a visit in August 2025, the exhibition was examining how daily life changed for Shitamachi citizens during war times, from care packages for soldiers to rationing back home. The previous exhibition had been designed to answer the question “what kind of place is Shitamachi?” This exhibition area is set to change every few months, in order to focus on a new theme and display a fresh collection of artifacts from the museum archives

The other half of the third floor is a small rest area, where visitors can sit down and grab a drink of water after exploring all the exhibitions. Even this area offers a chance to enjoy traditional Tokyo culture, though, with a selection of classic Japanese toys and games available for visitors to try out. This is the place to polish your kendama (cup and ball) skills, or learn how to elegantly tie a furoshiki cloth into a convenient handbag! Each item comes with an instruction page in English, so visitors young and old can get hands-on during their visit!

In case you forgot that the museum was right in the middle of Ueno Park, the rest area also offers a lovely view of Shinobazu Pond and the park paths down below.

Plan Your Trip to the Shitamachi Museum in Ueno

From the cherry blossoms of Ueno Park to the noisy market sellers and cheerful nightlife of nearby Ameyoko, Ueno’s many attractions have turned it into a beloved stop on many Tokyo travel itineraries in recent years, and the renovated Shitamachi Museum has certainly earned a spot on any schedule! Whether you’re planning an Ueno museum day, or just want to experience a little local Tokyo history during your visit to the city, the Shitamachi Museum is a fun and interesting spot for visitors of all ages – easily accessible from Ueno Station and other sightseeing spots, and cheap to enter, too. Spend a day in Ueno and add the Shitamachi Museum to your travel plans to get more out of your time in Tokyo!

▶︎ Check out the top 5 things to do in Ueno to plan your visit.

▶︎ Ueno Park is home to the Tokyo National Museum, the National Museum of Nature and Science, the National Museum of Western Art, the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum, the Ueno Royal Museum, as well as the Shitamachi Museum. Learn more about some of them here.

Shitamachi Museum (したまちミュージアム)
2-1 Uenokoen, Taito City, Tokyo
Hours: 9:30 – 16:30 | closed Mondays (or following day in case of a public holiday)
Admission: adults 300 yen | children 100 yen (preschoolers free)
Official Website (jp)

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