Yonegawa City Uesugi Museum

Excellent Kid-Friendly Historical Museum

This place was really grand. First, I was struck by the building which looked so much like museums from my homeland that I didn't need to look at the sign to see what it was. It turns out that the building also houses the cultural hall for the area as well as a lovely little museum. Honestly, we thought it was closed when we went by looking for a bathroom before heading out of the city and were just excited to be able to enter the building. It turned out that the permanent collection was still open for viewing that day so we bought tickets and went inside after using the facilities. From life-sized displays of helmet emblems to the tiny, detailed miniatures illustrating the daily life of people of that area in ancient samurai times, the front rooms were lovely and photography was allowed. In the back rooms and theater (which was closed) photography was not permitted but the show was still wonderful. In one video, the audience is given a hawk's eye view of the daily life of people in samurai towns through the seasons. In another, the audience is taken on a walk down the main street of the same samurai town. All of this is computer animated in a style to mimic the massive, gorgeous and historical painted screens in the next room. What a great way to get kids into art and history! In many of the main room exhibits, at least some English was provided even if it wasn't a word-for-word translation of the Japanese. This place was definitely worth stopping by.