National Museum of Japanese History
National Museum of Japanese History
4.5
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Monday
Closed
Tuesday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Wednesday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Thursday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Friday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Saturday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
Sunday
9:30 AM - 5:00 PM
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Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.
Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as wait time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.
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4.5
190 reviews
Excellent
102
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73
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11
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2
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待兼山
Osaka Prefecture, Japan46,099 contributions
Oct 2024 • Solo
National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura The museum has six exhibition rooms (ancient, medieval, early modern, folk, modern, and contemporary), each of which is divided into several sections to display materials. The contents, exhibits, and explanations of these materials are very easy to understand, and it deepens your knowledge of them. You will spend time visiting the corners you are interested in. As a result, I spent an hour in one exhibition room and only visited the early modern, folk and contemporary periods. I don't think you'll be able to spend much time sightseeing, so if you enter through the entrance, you'll first enter the ancient exhibition rooms, so it's a Recommendation to start at the ones you're interested in.
Automatically translated
Written October 6, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Craig4
10 contributions
Jul 2024 • Family
Wonderful museum, well worth a visit! The sections on myth and culture and early Japanese history were particularly interesting but the whole museum was great. They were running a session on writing in Japanese so the staff helped us write our names and some basic words, the staff were very welcoming and kind. We travelled out to the museum from Tokyo on the train, it was lovely to see a little bit of the countryside on the way. There were floor stickers from the train station to the museum so it was easy to find. There was enough English but we enjoyed translating and reading the longer Japanese descriptions using our phones, the audio guide was great.
Written August 12, 2024
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
gulartravel
Bandung, Indonesia10 contributions
May 2023
The National Museum of Japanese History, commonly known in Japanese as Rekihaku, is a history museum in Sakura, Chiba, Japan. The museum was founded in 1981 as an inter-university research consortium, and opened in 1983. The collections of museum focus on the history, archaeology, and folk culture of Japan
Written May 22, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Nine_Ate_Seven
Tokyo, Japan205 contributions
Sep 2013 • Family
If you want a comprehensive, interesting and well-displayed overview of Japanese history, plan an overnight or at least a half day in Sakura on your way to or from Narita. Even better, this fantastic museum deserves a special trip from Tokyo. The displays are vibrant and visual, and a taped guide or live English guide is available to explain what you are seeing.
This museum of Japanese national history is a great way for visitors to get up to speed (though like an all-you-can-eat buffet, in the end you may wish that you had sampled in smaller bites) but surprisingly is little known by Japanese (I suppose they already got their history in school), so I always like to tell people about it. One day on the Keisei line from Narita, I struck up a conversation with a young family returning to Japan. The parents were excited, but concerned about how their kids (born abroad) would adjust and learn about their heritage. I told them that a great place to start would be this museum but it didn't register to them, so I pulled it up on my smartphone. The mom didn't know about it and she was from Sakura!
Don't expect Japanese to tell you about this museum, but it is worth making a special effort to go there.
This museum of Japanese national history is a great way for visitors to get up to speed (though like an all-you-can-eat buffet, in the end you may wish that you had sampled in smaller bites) but surprisingly is little known by Japanese (I suppose they already got their history in school), so I always like to tell people about it. One day on the Keisei line from Narita, I struck up a conversation with a young family returning to Japan. The parents were excited, but concerned about how their kids (born abroad) would adjust and learn about their heritage. I told them that a great place to start would be this museum but it didn't register to them, so I pulled it up on my smartphone. The mom didn't know about it and she was from Sakura!
Don't expect Japanese to tell you about this museum, but it is worth making a special effort to go there.
Written August 31, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
aekrfk
Newport Beach, CA256 contributions
Apr 2016 • Couples
We rented a car and drove 2600 miles in Japan. It was an incredible three week trip. We were really sorry we did not start our trip by going to this museum outside of Tokyo. We had a flight home from Narita Airport in the afternoon and decided to visit this museum in the morning just to kill some time. It was a short drive from the airport hotel in our rental car. After three hours, using an excellent English audio guide, we had only seen three of the six galleries! We wished we had visited the museum when we arrived in Tokyo three weeks earlier as it would have given us an excellent overview of the Japanese going back thousands of years. I highly recommend this museum as a starting point of your trip. It is out of the way but a superb museum and will make your trip much more worthwhile. There were many Japanese there but very few tourists. Plan at least four hours and the audio guide is excellent.
Written May 26, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
cravingescape
Brisbane, Australia774 contributions
Apr 2016 • Family
It is surprising to find such a good museum in an area that does not seem central. This museum covered all aspects of Japanese history, from the dawn of civilisation to the post war era. We even found Godzilla! Japanese museums do wonderful dioramas and this one was not exception. There were enough hands on items to keep kids engaged too. There was a wonderful school area, which was very quiet the day we visited, and some wonderful teachers gave my sons calligraphy lessons, which they were very pleased with. I would certainly recommend the audio guides, as written English information was limited. We had a very appetising lunch at the cafe there. The surrounding park is wonderful too.
Written May 11, 2016
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
compella1
Los Angeles, CA16 contributions
Nov 2014 • Solo
Out of all the places I visited in Japan I can safely say this was the most bang for the buck, at a mere 400 yen you get about 3-4 hours of interactive galleries with translated sound prompts for each exhibit. From paleolithic to WW2 era and up to present day, the museum covers all the important historical events that shape Japanese culture, definitely worth the trip!
Written December 18, 2014
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Icarus3619
Sakura, Japan44 contributions
Jun 2012 • Friends
5 minutes by taxi from Keisei Sakura station or a 30 minute walk. Allow 2 hours to view all of the exhibits. English information available and usually English-speaking attendants. Located on the site of the ancient Sakura Castle. After looking through the museum, explore the gardens and take a picnic lunch or a bottle of wine to enjoy under the cherry blossoms in Spring.
20 minutes by train from Narita Airport. Not expensive.
20 minutes by train from Narita Airport. Not expensive.
Written May 29, 2013
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
Robert D
Brooklyn, New York5,379 contributions
May 2023 • Solo
There is a bus that goes Tokyo Station to the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura in 90 minutes. The museum was excellent. Gallery one focused on the prehistory of Japan. This exhibit was renovated and re-opened in 2019 with English labels on all of the objects. The other 5 galleries had far fewer English labels.
The earliest inhabitants of Japan used stone tools (ca. 37000-36000 years ago). The Jomon civilization was noted for its early use of pottery. 5000 years old. After wet rice cultivation was introduced into Japan, the next civilization to develop were the Yayoi. The various galleries continue the story of Japan into the 21st century. It includes Japanese popular culture, with its many forms of entertainment, such as Godzilla.
The bus from Tokyo allows you to spend 3.5 hours at the museum. There is enough to keep you interested for the entire time. I highly recommend this museum.
The earliest inhabitants of Japan used stone tools (ca. 37000-36000 years ago). The Jomon civilization was noted for its early use of pottery. 5000 years old. After wet rice cultivation was introduced into Japan, the next civilization to develop were the Yayoi. The various galleries continue the story of Japan into the 21st century. It includes Japanese popular culture, with its many forms of entertainment, such as Godzilla.
The bus from Tokyo allows you to spend 3.5 hours at the museum. There is enough to keep you interested for the entire time. I highly recommend this museum.
Written June 19, 2023
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
María R
24 contributions
Sep 2018 • Friends
Since I am interested in Japanese culture and society I found the museum amazingly interesting. Sadly, I was short on time and could only visit half of the exhibitions. If you like Japanese history, you should come prepared for a whole day walking around this place. The ticket is for a whole day, so I suggest going to the park area outside if you get a little tired of being indoors, and then come back again inside to keep catching up the information. Taking photos is allowed in certain areas only, always check your surrounding for the signs.
There are English translations for the exhibitions, but if you know Japanese I think you can enjoy it even more. I was told during spring the surroundings are especially beautiful. I went in the middle of September, and was pretty enough to me.
There are English translations for the exhibitions, but if you know Japanese I think you can enjoy it even more. I was told during spring the surroundings are especially beautiful. I went in the middle of September, and was pretty enough to me.
Written October 4, 2018
This review is the subjective opinion of a Tripadvisor member and not of Tripadvisor LLC. Tripadvisor performs checks on reviews as part of our industry-leading trust & safety standards. Read our transparency report to learn more.
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