SAITAMA

Tokorozawa Sakura Town

Discovering Design at the Kadokawa Culture Museum

Inside of one imaginative Saitama building that resembles a scrambled castle lies a wonderful tribute to Japanese comics and young adult books. Come inside the Kadokawa Culture Museum, famed architect Kengo Kuma’s recent work that’s promoting the world of design inside and out.

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Come see the real meaning of “Cool Japan” at Kengo Kuma’s stunning new work in Saitama, and the surrounding Sakura Town complex.

Part-museum, part-library, the visually amazing Kadokawa Culture Museum is a building so impressive that you’ll need to do a double-take. It’s one of the latest projects by superstar architect Kengo Kuma, who also helped design the New National Stadium in Tokyo. Made from around 20,000 pieces of irregular blocks of granite, the gigantic asymmetrical structure looks like a fantasy castle or headquarters straight out of science fiction. A fitting design for KADOKAWA, a manga company that conceived the project around the theme of “Imagination. Inspiration. Fantasy.” (Photo ©Kadokawa Culture Museum)

The first floor is home to the Grand Gallery, a 1,000-meter-squared space for art and other exhibitions, but the facility also comprises the Manga Ranobe(Manga & Light Novel) Library, which has an impressive 37,000 volumes of manga and light novels, and the EJ(Entertainment Japan) Anime Museum on the third floor. The top floors also house the mesmerizing Bookshelf Theater, an eight-meter-tall bookshelf with projection mapping. (Photo Â©Kadokawa Culture Museum)

The facility is located in the larger Tokorozawa Sakura Town complex, which claims to be Japan’s largest base for promoting popular culture under the banner of “Cool Japan.” After paying their respects at the modernist Musashino Reiwa Shrine, a shrine to Cool Japan that Kuma also supervised the design of. There are also several restaurants and cafés where you can recharge, including Ramen Walker Kitchen, which host pop-ups from some of the best ramen stores across Japan. Keep an eye on the event schedule too. There are two halls and the Sennin Terrace, a large outdoor space that hosts food festivals and other events.

Tokorozawa Sakura Town

Only an hour from central Tokyo, Tokorozawa Sakura Town is a must for architecture enthusiasts, anime fans, or just those with an interest in Japanese culture and Cool Japan! (Photo Â©Kadokawa Culture Museum)

Address

Kadokawa Musashino Museum

3-31-3 Higashitokorozawawada, Tokorozawa City, Saitama 359-0023

Phone number

'+81 570-017-396 (10:00 – 17:00)

Business hours

10:00 - 18:00(Sun. - Thurs.)
10:00 - 21:00(Fri. - Sat.)
Closed the 1st, 3rd, and 5th Tues. of every month. If that falls on a national holiday, it will instead be closed the following day.

WEB site

https://tokorozawa-sakuratown.com/en/

Digital Map