Paper Museum — Attraction in Tokyo

I'm giving 5 stars. It was genuinely a good experience. I knew a little bit about papermaking going in but actually learned quite a few interesting little things about the process and significantly more about washi paper and the significance of paper to Japanese culture.

It's a small, but well laid out museum. It's very inexpensive. They use an app that to this point I hadn't encountered in Tokyo (and I've visited roughly 15 museums both major and minor in the last three weeks). The museum's use of the app for foreign visitors is tremendous. It does a great job translating and guiding you along. There's no audio, if that's an issue for you. There are some small videos scattered around the museum that have English subtitles.

There's a small interactive area aimed at children that seemed well done and I even found a couple of the stations interesting.

The museum is also in a very nice park with a children's playground with some rather cool playground equipment. There are two other small museums nearby. The local history museum offers a "three pack" of tickets that includes entry to all three museums. The park is right next to a railyard, so depending on where you're coming from it is easy to reach and has a great viewing platform if you're into watching trains (multiple shinkansen passed while I was there).

Overall, it's a nice little gem of a museum in an interesting area that might particularly be of interest to younger grade school kids, but I had a good time as a single adult. The gift store is even worth a look as it features a lot of nice paper goods in styles that I don't recall seeing at...

One of a handful of museums in Asukayama Park. Used an app for English translations of all exhibit info. 2nd / main floor focuses on the modern history of western style paper production in Japan, particularly its relationship to the Oji area. Has artifacts / reproductions of various industrial pieces of equipment. Ends with a detailed breakdown of the paper industry’s relationship with recycling / re-use and environmental concerns. The exhibition feels a bit like an episode of “how it’s made.” However, on the fourth floor is a more historical exhibit on the birth of paper in the world and in particular its development in Japan. I would direct those interested in traditional Japanese arts and crafts to this floor, as their presentations, workshops (on weekends), and artifacts on Washi / traditional Japanese paper arts are very good. The third floor is an interactive version of the second floor’s information aimed at kids.

If you’re coming here or looking at this, you probably take an interest in paper, whether in either contemporary or traditional processes, the museum should...

This museum )one of the three in the park) is devoted to th Ōji Paper Works by Shibisawa family (which was among the founders of Japanese industrialization), as welp as to what story and paper manufacturing. One can see various goods made from paper and paper-mache including even clothes, and samples of expensive, very decorative fine paper. Very...