Edo-Tokyo & Sumo museums

Hit up two museums yesterday, Edo-Tokyo museum ticket price of 600 yen and just next door at the stadium we also went to the Sumo Museum - free!

The permanent exhibits at Edo-Tokyo are spread across 2 floors and are more than enough to give you a thorough overview of what life was like during the Edo period 1600 - 1868. Edo is the former name for Tokyo. It was renamed Tokyo in 1868 when it became the imperial capital.

If you are not into reading bucket loads of dry historical information, this museum is probably a good choice for you. They have heaps of interactive areas and photo opportunities if you don't mind posing like a dork. Obviously I have no such problem.

That's me in a palanquin.

And me again, holding up the 15kg banner the fireman used to march around with.

Strangely Chris did not want to participate in posing for any photos in the museum....

The museum has some really impressive models of the different buildings that existed back in ye old Edo.

And some life size replicas of the Nihonbashi bridge and a kabuki theatre. They have people doing performances in front of the theatre, we saw one kimono clad lady doing some pretty nifty things with a pair of scissors and an old guy demonstrating how to get the most out of your spinning top.
Yep, clearly aimed at the kiddies.

 

These are some of the typical characters that appear in the kabuki theatre shows.

 Fun fact about kabuki, the performers are all male, including all the female roles.

I thought the hairstyle section was pretty interesting too. I would never be able to manage those hairdos!

The Sumo Museum is only tiny but it is worth a look. Not open during Sumo tournaments and no photos are allowed but it has a good collection of the ceremonial aprons from past sumos and photos of all the Grand Champions (Yokozuna).

To be crowned a Yokozuna you have to win 2 major tournaments in a row. Apparently this is quite a difficult task, and only 1 in 1,000 sumo will make it the level of Yokozuna. Sumo has been going for around 2,000 years and they have only had 71 Grand Champions is that time.

Around the train station area there are lots of statues and hand prints from past champions. You can't help but want to put your hand up and compare or you could give one a high five like Chris.

We bought a poster of the current sumo line up. Chris wants to follow the Brazilian guy, 2nd row, 4th from the right. But I like the guy who has Charlie Chaplin on his mawashi or maybe the guy with the big rainbow butterfly....

We also bought a tea towel with some of the classic sumo moves.

Wish I had known some of these moves when I was younger, it may have helped me retrieve some of my belongings from my sisters.