The Kanda Myojin Museum (admission 500 yen) within the grounds of Kanda Myojin is a small museum. The exhibits focus on the Kanda Festival, and it was a shame that photography is prohibited for many of them, but the content was interesting. Japan's three great festivals are the Gion Festival (Kyoto), the Tenjin Festival (Osaka), and the Kanda Festival (Tokyo). In the Edo period, the Kanda Festival was called the "Tenka Matsuri" and seems to have been a prestigious festival allowed to parade into Edo Castle. The museum has a diorama where photography is prohibited, and along with the floats, there were Sarutahiko and people wearing Korean-style designs. Looking it up, I learned they're called the Chosen Tsushinshi, the official delegations sent from Joseon (Yi dynasty Korea) to Japan in the Edo period. It's interesting that in the Edo period some people took part in the Kanda Festival in Korean-style costumes. So it was a festival blended with the free-spirited sensibility of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism.

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Historical materials about Kanda Myojin and the Kanda Festival are mixed in with posters from anime collaborations and the like. I like both, so I enjoyed looking around. It's a good idea to visit after checking information on special exhibitions and such. It consists of smallish exhibition rooms on the 2nd and 3rd floors, but with large pieces like a mikoshi in the center and ukiyo-e and old documents arranged around them, it's not big, but I think it's on the more worthwhile side for a shrine/temple museum.

The 1st floor is a waiting room and rest area for shrine visitors. That day it was hot enough for a heatstroke alert, so I really appreciated the calm, air-conditioned space with vending machines. The 2nd floor is the special exhibition room, with a summery special exhibition: "Yokai Exhibition −The Yokai of Edo Appear−". The 3rd floor is the permanent exhibition room, with dioramas of the Kanda Festival in the Edo period and today, etc., and I was very satisfied for the 500 yen admission. However, it's a shame that because the building is old there's no elevator🛗 and it isn't barrier-free. A hidden-gem museum that wasn't listed on Google Maps.

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There's a fee to get in. A strange atmosphere where regular exhibits are mixed with anime. For me, since I'm not into anime, it just felt out of place.

2024/11/16, first visit. I came for the Kanda Myojin × The Apothecary Diaries exhibition. I'm a fan of "The Apothecary Diaries" and was looking forward to it, but they just had illustrations on display. That's it?! Couldn't they have shared behind-the-scenes stories about its creation, or put up character introductions or a character relationship chart? Total false advertising. Cash only.