Slightly better and more modern than most local history museums. Free entry. There is a stamp available.

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Higashi murayama has its old history than higashi Yamatoshi, i think. The amazing thing i saw there was a like a boat, that was wordless. I like the seat and puzzle play and people are nice too!👌🧘

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This is a local history museum located about a 10-minute walk from the west exit of Higashimurayama Station. It opened in 1965 (Showa 40) as the "Higashimurayama City Local Museum," and in 1996 (Heisei 8), the "Higashimurayama Furusato History Museum" was planned as its successor. Making use of the city's historical characteristics, its basic theme is set as "michi" (roads), and it has permanent exhibits of "earthenware, stone tools, itabi (stone stupas), old documents, etc." ◎Opening hours 9:30–17:00 ◎Closed every Monday and Tuesday (open if it's a public holiday, closed the next weekday instead) and during the year-end and New Year holidays. ◎They ask that you refrain from coming by car 《It looks like there's parking space near the entrance, but it was the paid parking lot of the neighboring metropolitan housing》 If you're coming by car, please use the coin parking lots around the station. In mid-May 2026, I visited here with my family. We were the only visitors at that time… Inside it was cool and quiet, and we could leisurely take in the history of Higashimurayama.

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This is the 4th city since I started touring the museums of neighboring cities. It started because of Hachikokuyama Ryokuchi and Shin-Yamanote Hospital, which were models for the anime "My Neighbor Totoro," but I also have a connection to Shofukuji, where my uncle and grandmother rest, so I visited as part of a cycling trip. The history museum is in a quiet place quite close to Hachikokuyama. I was able to learn about Jomon-period lacquer materials and how Higashimurayama City came to be, up to the present day. Since it's adjacent to Higashiyamato City, its development started from the Sayama Hills. And its major development came from the routes for materials and logistics and the gathering of people that accompanied the Lake Tama and Lake Sayama works. Many of the materials are things I feel I've seen somewhere before…… you can get a sense of the everyday life shaped by the development of woodlands and fields. It seems you can also try making Higashimurayama tsumugi. This time's special exhibition was on an intangible cultural property: "100 Years of Higashimurayama Gagaku.

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For my generation, hearing "Higashimurayama" means it's Ken Shimura's hometown, and you automatically think of the Drifters' version of "Higashimurayama Ondo" (lol), but I came here to explore what Higashimurayama City is really like, since despite its fame, its industry and history aren't well known. As an aside, Ken Shimura, who has become an indispensable figure in the modern history of Higashimurayama City, was posthumously named an honorary citizen by the city council, and at the same time a bronze statue of him was erected in front of Higashimurayama Station (see photo). His figure, striking the pose of his signature gag "Aiiin" with a smiling face, is funny, very much like him, and memorable. As for the history museum, although it's small in scale, the exhibits are carefully selected, the explanations are easy to understand, and the interior is refined. It's a cut above the kind of display common at regional museums, where things are just aimlessly lined up in glass cases. What I felt looking at the exhibits is that Higashimurayama was a "relay point" for major historical events. For example, when Saint Nichiren was being exiled to Sado Island, he stayed at Kumegawa-juku in the city, and when Nitta Yoshisada raised troops to overthrow the shogunate, fierce fighting broke out at that same Kumegawa on the way to Kamakura. That's because, since ancient times, Higashimurayama was a "transportation hub" through which major highways passed. In the Nara and Heian periods, the ancient official road "Tosando Musashi-michi" ran through here, connecting the Nagano and Tochigi areas to "Fuchu," the seat of the provincial government of Musashi Province; it was an impressive road, as much as 12m wide, with drainage ditches on both sides. When the imperial court declined and the age of the samurai arrived, the Kamakura Kaido Kamitsu-michi was built parallel to the Tosando Musashi-michi, this time in preparation for "Iza, Kamakura!" It's ironic that Nitta Yoshisada's army, out to overthrow the shogunate, advanced along that very road (lol). Some people may wonder why they bothered to build the Kamakura road parallel to the official road. The ancient official roads built by the imperial court have a very distinctive tendency everywhere: they were laid out in straight lines, ignoring the terrain and differences in elevation on the way to the destination. The Chinese official roads they had used as a model were like that, so maybe the court thought straight roads were "civilized" (lol). As a result, construction was tough, with mountains cut away and low wetlands filled in, and maintenance took a tremendous amount of effort. So once the court declined, the roads ultimately couldn't be maintained and fell into decline. The Kamakura road was developed as a more practical road that adapted better to the terrain. By the way, there's no address like "Higashimurayama ~-chome" in Higashimurayama City, as in the Drifters' version of Higashimurayama Ondo. Apparently the police box sometimes gets asked about it and it causes trouble, so just so you know (lol).

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