Kumamoto Museum 🌟

The most precious artifact is on P1: the Hone-no-maru boat house of the Hosokawa family, which is a National Important Cultural Property. 🌊🎢 During the Edo period, daimyos (feudal lords) had to travel to Edo (Tokyo) regularly for "sankin-kotai" – a system of alternate attendance. Traveling from Kyushu to Edo was a long and arduous journey, so the Hosokawa family built this commuting boat, named "Hone-no-maru," which means "a ship that can overcome waves." 🌟🌸 This boat house was fixed on the ship and served as the living quarters for the daimyo, about two stories high, with both decorative and practical features. After the Meiji Restoration, when the shogunate collapsed and the "sankin-kotai" system ended, the Hone-no-maru was dismantled. 🌇 However, this boat house was preserved and is the only remaining one in Japan used for commuting by a daimyo. 🚢 🌊🎢 The second floor is like a natural history museum, themed around "Discovering the Charm and Mystery Hidden in Nature." It features many local animal and plant specimens, as well as a mammoth fossil excavated from Gansu Province in China. 🌟🌸 The basement level houses an astronomical theater. 🌌 The museum shop sells a variety of fossils. I bought a Jurassic ammonite fossil (P3) from 150 million years ago. 🦐 🌇 I recommend a Japanese museum app called Pocket Curator, which provides information on museums and their main exhibits in various prefectures and cities across Japan. 📱 #KumamotoMuseum #Japan #Museum 🌿