Ryogoku: Edo-Tokyo Museum (& Sumo)

Ryogoku lies on the east side of the Sumida River, an area of Tokyo were we never went before. It is known as the Sumo-district, with the famous Kokugikan Sumo Stadium, various sumo stables (were the professional sumo wrestlers live and train), and restaurants selling typical Sumo food.

We, however, did not travel to Ryogoku for the Sumo attractions, we wanted to visit the Edo-Tokyo Museum (Edo Tokyo Hakubutsukan). We had already visited the branch location: the Edo-Tokyo Open Air museum, in the Westerns suburbs of Tokyo in March and very much enjoyed that trip. Therefore we were very much looking forward to visit the permanent exhibition at the main museum in Ryogoku.

The building of the Edo-Tokyo Museum

The museum is easily recognizable, as it is housed in a futuristic and unique building. It's already very impressive to walk up to the building, and enter through a very long escalator in a big round tube.
The museum itself shows the past of Tokyo (formerly known as Edo) in a very interesting and interactive way. It shows very detailed how life in Tokyo used to be.

Model of old street in Tokyo

Model of an amusement district next to the river

Model of an amusement district next to the river

Many of the items on display are (life-sized) models of items, vehicles, figures, shops and stores and make it very interesting to see how Tokyo was in the past. There are quite a number of interactive models, were moving displays give you a view on the inside, or show what used to happen in various situations. For example, you get to see the inside of a former Kabuki-theatre, with a detailed show on how special effect used to be carried out. The theatre of the museum (of course in old Edo-style) holds various performances in the weekend, showing traditional Japanese entertainment.
It was truly a very interesting trip and museum, and we would definitely recommend the museum to people who are interested in the history of (life in) Tokyo.

Display of Kabuki actors and atributes

Model of Western style house (for foreign visitors) located in the floor, the roof of the building would open to you could see the inside!

After we visited the museum, we took a walk around Ryogoku. There are two very nice parks in the area, Yokoamicho Park and Kyu-Yasuda Teien Garden (with a splendid view on the new Tokyo Sky Tree!). We also walked by the Sumo Stadium and discovered that there was actually an event going on that day.
That day the national competition for junior high school students was held in the Sumo Stadium. Therefore entrance was free to the public. It was our first visit to the Kokugikan, and our first time to see sumo live, so it was very interesting to experience!

The sumo hall in the Kokugikan Sumo Stadium

Young sumo wrestlers about to start their game

The sumo wrestlers were still very young (somewhere between 12 and 15 years old) but most of them already had the characteristic body of a professional sumo wrestler, while others were still skinny and looked like they would be better suited to take part in the long distance running competition. Some pro's were also enjoying the tournament but we suspect they were scouting for talent at the same time. Regardless of who won the championship, the true winner was the McDonald's across the stadium. Everywhere wrestlers were building their body power with some good old Big Macs :).