Tachikawa Museums Guide: Art, 2,558 Instruments and Things to Do

Tamashin RISURU Hall: the civic hall named after a squirrel

Go down the south side of Tachikawa Station and walk to Nishiki-cho. According to Tachikawa City, it is 13 minutes on foot from JR Tachikawa Station, 12 from Tachikawa-Minami Station on the Tama Monorail, or 7 from Nishi-Kunitachi Station on the JR Nambu Line. A steel-reinforced concrete building with one basement floor and five above ground: the Tachikawa Civic Hall.

It opened on 11 January 1974, the same year the bank opened its gallery on the 9th floor of its head office. In the Tachikawa of 1974, a hall and a gallery were born in the same year.

After major renovation, it reopened on 9 January 2014. At that point its nickname changed from “Amu Tachikawa” to “Tamashin RISURU Hall.” In this town, a generation that remembers the hall as “Amu” and a generation that knows it only by the squirrel’s name now sit in the same auditorium.

According to Tachikawa City, this was the city’s first case of naming rights. The sponsor is Tama Shinkin Bank. RISURU is the name of the bank’s original character, a squirrel (risu in Japanese). On 28 March 2024 the city renewed the agreement with Tama Shinkin Bank, for five years from April 2024 to March 2029, at 10 million yen a year.

Here the story links back to the art museum. A credit union born in Tachikawa became Tama’s shinkin bank, built an art museum, and lent its squirrel’s name to the civic hall. The city records that at the signing ceremony, Tachikawa City’s mascot “Kururin,” the mayor, the bank’s chairman and RISURU lined up together. Two costumed mascots, establishing a little diplomatic relationship between government and finance.

The large hall seats 1,201: 771 on the ground floor, 416 in the balcony, and 14 wheelchair spaces. The stage opening is 18 metres wide. There is also a small hall, an exhibition room, a sub-hall, a gallery and seven meeting rooms.

Inside this hall is a painting few people know about. According to the city’s list of paintings it owns, the civic hall has Nomiyama Gyoji’s oil painting Genkai, a large size-150 canvas. The civic hall’s store also holds drawings by the same artist and Japanese-style paintings such as Sato Tamochi’s Mizubasho Mandara (“Skunk Cabbage Mandala”) and Ito Akira’s Fire. The same page shows a photo of Miyagi Otozo’s Human: This Strange Creature as a civic-hall work too. Right beside the people waiting for curtain-up, the city’s art is quietly at work.

One of the bodies using this hall as a base is the Tachikawa Regional Culture Promotion Foundation. Open its website and a row of programme names appears: Wednesday Concerts, Stage Anywhere, Kids’ Workshops, Appreciation Tours, Tachikawa Art Gallery Exhibition, Tachikawa Theatre Festival, Tachikawa Citizens’ Opera, Tama Fresh Music Concert. Not many towns have citizens staging opera.

And here Wednesday turns up again. The instrument museum’s display room opens on Wednesdays; the foundation’s signature concerts are Wednesday Concerts. Tachikawa’s culture seems to like making music in the middle of the week. Coincidence, surely. A suspiciously neat one.

Old houses and a three-storey storehouse on five tsubo: the history museum and the Old Folk Houses Garden

From the town of the stage, let us go back a little in time.

The Tachikawa Museum of History and Folklore is in Fujimi-cho 3-chome. According to the city, it opened on 1 December 1985. It is 20 minutes on foot from Nishi-Tachikawa Station on the JR Ome Line, or 5 minutes from the “Danchi Nishi” or “Nogyo Shikenjo-mae” stops by bus from the South Exit of Tachikawa Station. Admission is free.

The permanent galleries show materials on Tachikawa’s history, folk life and nature from prehistory to the modern era: Katsusaka-style Jomon pottery, documents of the medieval Tachikawa clan, a map of Shibasaki Village, fishing gear from the Tama River. There is also a replica of the six-sided stone lantern-pillar (rokumen sekito) that is a National Treasure. Read the titles of the museum’s guide sheets in order, and they add up to a history of Tachikawa: “Archaeological Sites in Tachikawa,” “Life in the Jomon Period,” “Itabi Stone Markers and the Six-Sided Stone Pillar,” “The Medieval Tachikawa Clan and Its Documents,” “Tachikawa in the Edo Period,” “The Opening of the Kobu Railway,” “The History of the Tachikawa Airfield,” “Sericulture and Weaving,” “Sunagawa’s Mulberry Saplings,” “Fishing Methods and Gear of the Tama River.” From pottery to aeroplanes, you can walk through Tachikawa’s whole history on ten sheets of paper.

The museum’s entrance is also the starting point of the “Path of Poems,” a line of stones carved with tanka and haiku leading toward the Tama River. I walked it in this series’ episode on the Nekawa stream.

Another old time lives in Saiwai-cho to the north: the Kawagoemichi Ryokuchi Old Folk Houses Garden.

At its heart is the Kobayashi family house, a city tangible cultural property. According to the city, the main house is of the “six-room type,” rare in Sunagawa, made up of six rooms apart from the earth-floored work area, and it was built with high skill and good materials. Its highlight is the north-west room called the Oku, the “inner room,” whose decorative features, a tokonoma alcove, staggered shelves and a built-in writing desk, have a formality, the city says, to rival samurai houses of the time. Deep inside a village house, a reception room not to be outdone by the warrior class. I see in it the modest vanity and pride of Sunagawa’s villagers.

The house originally stood elsewhere in Saiwai-cho 4-chome. When it was designated a city cultural property in 1989 and taken apart for study, a timber inscribed “Kaei 5 (1852)” was found, revealing the year it was built. That is the year before Commodore Perry’s ships arrived at Uraga. The roof is thatched, in the hip-and-gable style, and the floor area is about 198 square metres, 60 tsubo (a tsubo is the traditional Japanese unit of floor area, about two tatami mats). The restoration followed a policy of “using the original materials as far as possible to return it to its original state,” and the Old Folk Houses Garden opened on 17 October 1993.

Next to it stands another unusual building: the Suzaki family storehouse.

According to the city, it is a three-storey wooden earthen storehouse thought to date from the late Edo or early Meiji period, of a type rarely found. Its floor area is about 16.2 square metres, 5 tsubo. Yet its ridge is about 8.5 metres high. The Kobayashi main house next door has a ridge height of about 8.7 metres, so a storehouse with about a twelfth of the floor area rises almost as high as the main house. You cannot add land, but you can add sky. A pawnbroker at the end of the Edo period had the same idea as the narrow “pencil buildings” of central Tokyo today.

The Suzaki family was an old family that served as group head of Sunagawa Village’s 8th group in the Edo period, and ran a pawnshop; this was their pawn storehouse. Its beams and board walls use expensive zelkova wood generously, and it has a box staircase with drawers for storing account books. The city completed its restoration in March 2016 as a building symbolising the thriving trade of Sunagawa Village, once famous for its mulberry saplings, and has shown it to the public since 21 April 2016.

A three-storey pawn storehouse and a bank’s art museum. They are some 150 years apart, but in Tachikawa, in both cases, the people who look after other people’s money are looking after culture.

One important notice, though. According to the city, the Old Folk Houses Garden is closed from 1 June 2026 to 31 March 2027 for renovation of its facilities. If this article makes you want to go, please wait for spring.

A school becomes a factory, and the city signs a declaration

Another face of Tachikawa’s culture is found outside buildings.

In October 2015, Tachikawa Sozosha (“Tachikawa Creation House”) opened near the Tama River. It uses the school building and gymnasium of the city’s Tamagawa Elementary School, which closed in 2004, kept as they were. The city calls it a “Culture Factory.” It is a place that supports the activities of cultural groups, and the second floor of the school building is rented out as a dedicated space for filming. It is run by the NPO Arts Network Japan, chosen through a proposal competition. Rooms that were classrooms have become rehearsal rooms and film sets. By the Tama River, with a view of Mt. Fuji, the city writes.

In policy, too, Tachikawa was early. In December 2004 the city proposed the “Tachikawa City Ordinance on Town-Building through Culture and the Arts” to the city assembly, and it passed unanimously. Before that, for five years from fiscal 1998, residents, businesses, schools and the city had worked together to hold the “Tachikawa Summer Music Festival,” the “Tachikawa International Art Festival” and the “Tachikawa Performing Arts Festival.”

Reading the explanation of this ordinance, I felt I had at last caught hold of a clue to my opening question. The ordinance was named “town-building through culture and the arts” rather than “promotion of culture,” because the city wanted to stress respect for people’s own initiative. And while the ordinance says that the bearers of culture and the arts are citizens, it defines “citizens” to include not only people who live in the city but everyone and everything active within it, including schools and businesses.

A music college named after Kunitachi and a bank named after Tama are, in the language of this ordinance, citizens of Tachikawa.

On 14 September 2026, Kunitachi College of Music, Tachihi Holdings and Tachikawa City signed a “Joint Declaration on Town-Building through Music and Culture.” According to the city, the three confirmed that they would each use their expertise, facilities and people to give residents, children above all, more opportunities to enjoy and learn music and the arts. Tachihi, which began as an aircraft company; a music college that came from Kunitachi; and the city. Nothing could be more Tachikawa than this combination.

In the bus terminal at the station’s North Exit stands a stone carved with a tanka poem by the poet Wakayama Bokusui. According to the city’s list for the “Path of Poems,” it reads: 立川の驛の古茶屋さくら樹のもみぢのかげに見送りし子よ, roughly, “At the old teahouse of Tachikawa Station, in the shade of the cherry tree’s autumn leaves, the one I saw off.” A poem about seeing someone off at the station teahouse, under the reddened leaves of a cherry tree. Tachikawa Station has always been a place for welcoming people and seeing them off.

Why doesn’t Tachikawa’s culture call itself “Tachikawa”?

Let me return to the opening question.

Half the answer lies in history. “Tachikawa” disappeared from the bank’s name because a Tachikawa union grew to cover all of Tama. “Kunitachi” remains in the music college’s name because a school born in Kunitachi came to Tachikawa with its name unchanged. The civic hall is called by a squirrel’s name because the city teamed up with the local bank to keep a home for culture going. None of it is because Tachikawa is small. It is the result of people and organisations passing through this town and gathering in it.

The other half looks like this to me. A transfer town accepts what comes from elsewhere under its own name. A college named Kunitachi, a bank named Tama, a research institute named after Antarctica: Tachikawa welcomed them without rewriting their names, and by ordinance called them “citizens.” Not writing “Tachikawa” on the sign, I think, is a measure of this town’s generosity. That is a traveller’s liberty in reading. The other half you can work out for yourself, listening to the sound of instruments on a Wednesday.

About 30 minutes from Shinjuku on the Chuo Line. Some weekend in Tachikawa, carry one fewer shopping bag from the station-front stores and push open the door on the ground floor of a bank. Tachikawa’s culture doesn’t announce itself, but it is right there.

Answer to the detour quiz

The answer is A, Antarctica. The regional list of the Musical Instrument Museum’s collection runs from East Asia to the Pacific Islands and then, at the very end, places “Antarctic.” Which instruments belong there, or whether the slot is waiting for its first one, ask at the museum. In Midori-cho, Tachikawa also has a science museum where you can touch Antarctic ice. Between instruments and ice, there are two Antarcticas in Tachikawa.

Before you go

• Getting there: about 30 minutes from Shinjuku on the JR Chuo Line (according to a leaflet from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s Bureau of Environment), and 40 minutes from Tokyo Station by Special Rapid (according to Tachikawa City). From Kanagawa, the JR Nambu Line links Kawasaki Station with Tachikawa Station, so you can come from Kawasaki without changing; on the Nambu Line, Nishi-Kunitachi, one stop before Tachikawa, is closest to the civic hall. Check times on the day’s timetable. Carry an IC card such as Suica or PASMO to save buying tickets each time.
• Tamashin Museum: Tama Shinkin Bank Head Office, ground floor, 3-4 Midori-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo (the second floor is the community space). About 6 minutes on foot from JR Tachikawa Station (according to the foundation). No dedicated parking. Check opening hours, closing days, admission and closures for exhibition changes on the official site: https://www.tamashinmuseum.org/
• Musical Instrument Museum, Kunitachi College of Music: Building 4, ground floor, Kunitachi College of Music, 5-5-1 Kashiwa-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. 7 minutes on foot from Tamagawa-Josui Station (Seibu Haijima Line / Tama Monorail). The display room is open to the public, in principle, on Wednesdays during the college’s teaching terms; admission is free and no booking is needed (groups must book in advance). Check open days on the museum’s calendar. No photography in the display room. https://www.gs.kunitachi.ac.jp/ja/
• Tamashin RISURU Hall (Tachikawa Civic Hall): 3-3-20 Nishiki-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. 13 minutes on foot from JR Tachikawa Station, 12 from Tachikawa-Minami Station on the Tama Monorail, 7 from JR Nishi-Kunitachi Station (according to the city). For events, see the official sites: https://risuru.hall-info.jp/ / Tachikawa Regional Culture Promotion Foundation https://www.tachikawa-chiikibunka.or.jp/
• Tachikawa Museum of History and Folklore: 3-12-34 Fujimi-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. 20 minutes on foot from Nishi-Tachikawa Station on the JR Ome Line, or by bus from Tachikawa Station South Exit to “Danchi Nishi” or “Nogyo Shikenjo-mae” and 5 minutes on foot. Free admission. Check opening hours and closing days on the city’s page: https://www.city.tachikawa.lg.jp/kanko/bunka/1004244/1004849/1004905.html
• Kawagoemichi Ryokuchi Old Folk Houses Garden: 4-65 Saiwai-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo. Closed for renovation from 1 June 2026 to 31 March 2027 (according to the city). Check the city’s page for reopening: https://www.city.tachikawa.lg.jp/shisetsu/1008065/1008100.html
• Tachikawa Sozosha (the former Tamagawa Elementary School): go on days when events are held. http://tachikawa-sozosha.jp/
• Combine it with: the Tamashin Museum is on Sun Sun Road, so it fits into a half day with GREEN SPRINGS and the Faret Tachikawa art. Make a Wednesday at the instrument museum a day for taking the monorail to Tamagawa-Josui Station and walking the green path along the Tamagawa Aqueduct. The history museum is a starting point for walks along the Nekawa Green Path and the Tama River. No official guide gives visiting times, so pace yourself by the number of exhibits and your own feet.
• Manners: the instrument museum is inside a working college. Speak to the security guard on arrival, and keep your voice down on campus.

After art and instruments: the North Exit of Tachikawa Station

Art galleries and instrument galleries are places where you stand, walk slowly and now and then bend down to look. Afterwards your lower back and shoulders are stiffer than you expect. If you want to loosen up, On the Shore Tachikawa (オンザショア立川店) is a 1-minute walk from the North Exit of Tachikawa Station, on the 3rd floor of the Etoile Building, 2-14-10 Akebonocho, Tachikawa, Tokyo.

It is a lava-stone hot yoga studio, where you practise yoga in a room heated with lava stones. It also offers room-temperature yoga, Pilates, women-only kickboxercise, boxercise, HIIT and personal training, with more than 25 kinds of yoga lessons.

It is open every day, 8:00 to 23:30, with the same hours whatever the day. You can hear the 10-minute instrument talk at lunchtime on a Wednesday and move your body in the evening before heading home.

For first-timers there is a trial yoga lesson for ¥1,980 (tax included), with two bath towels, one face towel and a mat rental included. Pregnant guests cannot join lava-stone hot yoga, but room-temperature maternity yoga is available. Many of our yoga instructors speak English, and the studio’s owner, Naomi Fujita, who holds Japan’s top English qualification (Eiken Grade 1) and a perfect TOEIC score and once worked as a translator and overseas interpreter at Nomura Securities, and who lived in Alaska for three years, often helps guests from the US bases in English herself (visitors from abroad have even left Google reviews about the care they received in English); if you would like an English-friendly lesson, just say so when you book.

• On the Shore: https://ontheshore.jp/
• Trial lesson booking: https://site.locaop.jp/C0aVK?_src=hp

Over the road back to the station, the monorail runs north. Up in Kashiwa-cho, 2,558 miscellaneous objects are waiting for next Wednesday.

Cover photo: Tama Shinkin Bank’s head office in Midori-cho, Tachikawa, with the Tamashin Museum sign on the ground floor (Photo: Suikotei / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons)

Information as of October 2026.

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