Under the supervision of founding director and editorial engineer Seigo Matsuoka, naturalist Hiroshi Aramata, architect Kengo Kuma, and art historian and art educator Shingo Kamino, the museum disseminates culture from mainstream to pop culture in a multifaceted manner.
17 April 2026 10:00 + more dates
About a 10-minute walk from Higashi-Tokorozawa Station. The Kadokawa Musashino Museum is a building that stands out prominently within “Tokorozawa Sakura Town.” The architectural design of the exterior was supervised by world-renowned architect Kengo Kuma.
The entrance, which houses the ticket counter and other facilities, is located on the second floor. The first floor features the “Grand Gallery”—the museum’s largest exhibition space—as well as the “Genji Garden,” which centers on a Japanese zelkova tree cherished by founder Genji Kadokawa and is adorned with autumn seven herbs and weeping cherry trees, and the “Manga and Light Novel Library,” which houses a collection of over 40,000 volumes of manga and light novels.
The “Edit Town—Book Street” on the 4th floor is a “town of books” where you can feel the pulse and bustle of literature. Curated by Seigo Matsuoka, approximately 25,000 books are displayed along a 50-meter stretch. It is a space where encounters with new books and new associations are born.
The adjacent “Aramata Wonder Treasure House” is a “cabinet of curiosities” curated by Hiroshi Aramata, who focuses on expressions of “imagination” and “anima. “ This space, brimming with surprises, brings together a diverse array of exhibits—ranging from Wunderkammer-style collections to academic materials—offering an experience that engages both the visual and sensory senses.
The “Bookshelf Theater,” a reading space surrounded by a massive bookshelf approximately 8 meters tall, houses about 20,000 volumes, including KADOKAWA publications as well as personal collections from Minamoto Genji, Kenkichi Yamamoto, Rizo Takeuchi, and Moriyoshi Hokama. Projection mapping based on the concept of “playing with books and interacting with books” is also screened, offering an immersive experience where the world of books seems to extend beyond their covers.
On the 5th floor, at the “Musashino Gallery” and “Musashino Corridor,” you can enjoy books and exhibits related to the Musashino area. After touring the museum or before heading home, we recommend stopping by “SACULA DINER” to enjoy a meal featuring “Musashino Cuisine,” which focuses on locally sourced ingredients.
In particular, the restaurant uses “Mito Vegetables,” grown using a leaf-mulch farming method that dates back to the Edo period. Centered around the nature-rich Musashino Plateau, the restaurant incorporates appealing ingredients from various regions and serves them in a style that breaks free from conventional cooking methods.
Why not take a short trip from Tokyo and spend a day satisfying your intellectual curiosity?
Kadokawa Musashino Museum
17 April 2026 10:00 + more dates
