A floor by floor guide of the Kadokawa Musashino Museum, also known as the Kadokawa Culture Museum or Kadcul for short. Tokorozawa City, Saitama Prefecture.
The Kadokawa Musashino Museum is a fusion of museum, art gallery, culture and library. It opened on August 1st 2020. The museum is from one of Japan’s largest publishing companies: Kadokawa Corporation. Kadokawa are known in particular for their manga magazines. For this reason, it is no surprise that Manga features greatly in the new complex. In addition, the “Musashino” in the museum’s name refers to the name of the geographic region. It is also named Kadokawa Culture Museum in English and nicknamed Kadcul for short.
Kadokawa Musashino Museum
The architecture of the museum is as impressive as the contents and interior design. Furthermore, the museum was designed by the multi award winning Kengo Kuma and Associates. It was designed to convey the image of a rock floating on water. Moreover, an incredible 20,000 pieces of granite, weighing 50 to 70 kilos each, were used in the impressive creation.
In addition, the water at the base of the “rock” serves as a functional paddling pool in the summer. They light it up at night too, even on nights that the museum is closed early.
By Floor
The museum has five floors and the library has nine areas including a “forest of books”. I took the above image from the 2020 Kadokawa Tokorozawa Walker Mook, which also has a complete guide to Sakura Town.
The museum by floor, from the top:
5th floor
The fifth floor of the museum opened on November 6th 2020. It has the Musashino Gallery, a restaurant and cafe as well as the much anticipated Bookshelf Theater:
Bookshelf Theater
Within weeks of opening, the eight meter high bookshelf soon became a symbol of the “Kadcul” museum. The giant bookshelf holds approximately 50,000 books.
4th floor
The fourth floor houses Edit Town, Edit and Art Gallery and also the “Aramata Treasure House” (pictured above). The latter, Aramata Treasure House, (or a literal translation from the Japanese: Aramata Hidden Wonders Museum) is divided into two rooms. The Wonder Room and Science Art Room.
Information for the current or upcoming exhibition at the Edit and Art Gallery:
3rd floor
The EJ Anime Museum aims to introduce the history and culture of Japan’s famous manga culture. Moreover, it will have a collection of 2.5 million comics and light novels. Furthermore, the museum will showcase by collections. For the opening of the museum the first exhibition commemorated the 35th anniversary of the monthly magazine publication Newtype. Since then there has been two Thomas the Tank Engine exhibitions, a Trigger and Good Smile Company exhibition, two Marvel exhibitions and a Gundam exhibition. To name, but a few. In February 2023, the Snoopy Exhibitions was a huge success. It was followed by a Bungo Stray Dog exhibition.
Information for the current or upcoming exhibition at the EJ Anime Museum:
2nd floor
The manga and light novel library is on the second floor. The Kado cafe is also on this floor. Both opened on August 1st 2020. In keeping with the architecture of the museum, there is also a rock museum on the 2nd floor.
1st floor
The manga and light novel library stretches from the first floor up to the second floor. There is also a gallery on this floor: the Grand Gallery. The very first exhibition at the Grand Gallery was the very popular “Kengo Kuma | The birth of an art space connected to nature” exhibition. They have had two very successful immersive exhibitions in the past year. In the winter of 2023 and spring of 2024 they will have their third immersive exhibition. Latest information for the current or upcoming exhibition at the Grand Gallery:
Kadokawa Musashino Museum Information
| Kadokawa Musashino Museum | |
|---|---|
| Address: | 3 Chome-31-3 Higashitokorozawawada, Tokorozawa, Saitama 359-0023 |
| Phone: | 0570-017-396 (2 pm to 5 pm on weekdays only) |
| Hours: | 10 am to 6 pm, except for Fridays and Saturdays when it opens until 9 pm. Closed on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Tuesdays of the month. |
| Cost: | Tickets cost 1,600 yen for adults, 1000 yen for students and 700 yen for elementary school aged children. Please note that some exhibitions incur an additional and / or different price. Booking can be done through their website (quick link). It is strongly advised that you book in advance. |
| Online: | Official website Grand Gallery information in English EJ Anime Museum information in English Edit and Art Gallery information in English |
All images from the Sakura Town official website unless otherwise stated.
Access
The museum is located within walking distance of the Higashi Tokorozawa station. It only takes about ten minutes on foot. Watch out for the LED Anime manhole covers on the walk!
By car: the resort is about an eight minute drive from the Tokorozawa Interchange of the Kanetsu Expressway. Parking costs 200 yen for 30 minutes. However, the maximum you pay on a weekday is 600 yen and 1,800 yen on the weekend. The Sakura town main car park closes at 8 pm from Sunday to Thursday and at 10 pm on Fridays and Saturdays. However, “Dai Ni” and “Dai San” car parks are open 24 hours.
Sakura Town
Kadokawa Musashino / Culture Museum is just one of the many offerings at the new Sakura Town Shin Tokorozawa. It is part of the Cool Japan Forest Project, an initiative between Kadokawa Corporation and Tokorozawa city. Other shops, facilities and services at the complex also include:
- TeamLab “Acorn Forest” outdoor exhibition closing on January 8th 2024.
- EJ Anime Hotel closed on May 31st 2023
- Grand gallery of the museum
- Kadokawa Restaurant
- Musashino Jurin Cafe
- Da Vinci Store, Tokorozawa Sakura Town
- ‘Cool Japan’ Musashino Reiwa Shrine
- LED Anime Manhole Covers and Pokemon Manhole Covers