Edo-Tokyo Museum

By the early 1800s, Edo (now Tokyo) had grown into a major city with a population of over one million. Its inhabitants proudly referred to their metropolis as ‘Hana no Oedo’ or ‘Great Edo’, reflecting the prosperity and vibrant culture that defined life under the long peace of the Tokugawa shogunate. This exhibition at the newly renovated Edo-Tokyo Museum invites visitors to discover what the people of Edo valued most about their city during its greatest period of flourishing. Celebrating the museum’s reopening after nearly four years of renovation, ‘In Praise of Great Edo’ draws entirely from the institution’s extensive collection. Through approximately 160 carefully selected works, many of them displayed for the first time, the show explores the social and cultural life of Edo from multiple perspectives. The exhibition reveals a city shaped by both samurai authority and the flourishing culture of townspeople. Armour, ceremonial objects and wedding furnishings evoke the refined world of the warrior class, while prints and artefacts capture the lively atmosphere of sumo arenas, kabuki theatres and the pleasure quarters of Yoshiwara. Visitors will also encounter the dramatic realities of urban life, from the ever-present threat of fires and the rivalries among firefighting brigades to the rich intellectual exchanges among writers, artists and scholars.