Webmaster visited Museum of Musical Instruments in Hamamatsu City last week.
Access: Tokyo (shinkansen 1:30) Hamamatsu (walk 0:10) @
The entrance of the museum. As it was a weekday when Webmaster visited, the museum was not crowded.
There are four main exhibition rooms. The first room is for Asian and Japanese instruments. There are some 330 items of Asia and 200 items of Japan.
A set of instruments for gamelan orchestra of Indonesia
A set of hanging bells of Korea
Sets of bells and drums of Myanmar. Musicians stand inside to play.
The decoration of each instrument is also very impressive.
The exhibited instruments cannot be touched, but the visitors can experience the performances of them by videos and headphones set at each exhibition.
A set of instruments for Gagaku orchestra, which is a traditional court music of Japan.
Shamisen, a three-stringed instrument of Japan and its video
The traditional drums of Japan
The visitors can play some instruments in Hands-on Room on the same floor.
The visitors play as they like.
The second and the third exhibition rooms are on the downstairs.
The second exhibition room is for those of Oceania, Africa, America and Europe, which have some 60, 60, 200 and 300 items, respectively.
Drums and a woodwind instrument of Oceania
Xylophones and a harp of Africa
Maracas of America
The instruments of Europe.
Which Webmaster was attracted most among European instruments were some strange shape horns and a set of musical glasses.
The third room is provided for keyboard instruments with some 70 items. Visitors can play some of them.
The fourth room is for electronic instruments and Japanese-made western musical instruments. Hamamatsu City is famous for its products of musical instruments.
A small exhibition of the dolls of musicians of the world is also interesting.
Those below are from Peru, Romania, and Tibet, respectively.
Finally, Webmaster bought a bookmark of the shape of harp at the museum shop.
End.