Fukagawa Edo Museum

The Fukagawa Edo Museum in Tokyo's Koto ward is a relatively small district-run local museum that reconstructs a residential neighbourhood of the late Edo period. The main hall holds a full-scale slice of such a quarter: a rice warehouse, fishmonger, rice dealer, the homes of ordinary craftsmen, a watchtower and a small shrine, all walk-in and furnished with period objects and tools. Lighting cycles between day and night, with rooster calls and dog barks to mark the time. Fukagawa was a canal district of timber merchants and rice barges in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and the museum tries to make that water-world tangible. It is a hit with families and a quiet contrast to the nearby sumo arena.