Located on the 7F of the Toshima Industry Promotion Plaza. The entire 7F is the local history museum, where you can trace the history of Toshima Ward from the Paleolithic era to the present. The display of folk tools from a family that farmed in the ward for a long time is interesting. There are also special exhibitions, and you can read and buy books. Viewing is free. The images are from the special exhibition as of March 6, 2026.

The building next to the Ikebukuro Fire Station (Disaster Prevention Center) is the Toshima Industry Promotion Plaza IKE･Biz (Ikebiz). The museum is on its 7th floor. Ikebiz is a building aimed at promoting small and medium-sized businesses in the ward and contributing to regional economic development, and as part of that, it also houses the local history museum. The building and museum were apparently renovated in 2017, but the museum marks its 40th year this year since opening in 1984. First, I learned about Toshima's geological strata from a specimen of strata about 4m high that had been peeled off. Next, I looked at Paleolithic artifacts and Yayoi pottery. After that, I viewed exhibit panels about the development of the Kamakura Kaido and Kiyoto-michi roads and how it went from villages to a ward. As Toshima Ward urbanized in the Showa era, cultural figures such as artists and painters came to gather and live around Ikebukuro, and atelier villages (rental houses with ateliers) sprang up in various places. I also saw a diorama of those ateliers. Then it moved on to life during and after the war and the rise of the black markets, and finally I viewed a huge, horizontally long exhibit panel, "The History of Toshima Ward." The special exhibition corner changes themes regularly. When I visited, it was titled "Each Person's Memories" and displayed photos of Showa-era scenery around Ikebukuro provided by volunteers. It's not a very large museum, but the content was dense. Thinking "it's fine if I can't understand and take in everything in one visit," I plan to come back again without any pressure.

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Toshima Ward, home to the secondary city center of Ikebukuro, was once a village, and going back further, a wilderness; as you read through each explanation tracing its path one by one, an hour or so passes in no time. The dioramas of the rental ateliers for artists from the Meiji era onward and of the black market after the defeat in the war are elaborately made and well worth seeing. The explanatory texts mention a lot of place names, and I thought it would be nice to have more notes for people who don't know the area well. Also, there are no exhibits you can touch or try out, so small children might find it a bit boring. The permanent exhibition doesn't seem to change its content much, while the special exhibition room holds themed exhibitions on local history, art, and literature/manga. It's a small museum, but I think the content is rich for locals and people with ties to the area.

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Both the special and permanent exhibitions are compactly put together, so you can see them quickly. There's a little quiz. You can get a small sticker.

It's on the 7th floor of the industry center building. As someone from Nakano, I checked out Toshima Ward as the enemy that Nakano Ward once fought a war with (I learned about it at the Nakano Ward museum). You can learn interesting history, like how it developed through the Ikebukuro black market, and I thought, Toshima Ward has been a city ever since right after the war! You don't even go through reception — get off the elevator and you can see it right there for free. Afterward I went straight to the Toshima Disaster Prevention Center in the fire station next door, and it turned out to be a hands-on facility, not a museum.

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