Katsushika City Museum of Local History and Astronomy

In short

The Katsushika City Museum of Local History and Astronomy is a museum that combines a local history museum tracing Katsushika's history and an astronomy museum exploring the world of the stars. It opened in 1991 and is equipped with an astronomical observation room and a planetarium featuring an 18-meter-diameter dome. It is about an 8-minute walk from Ohanajaya Station on the Keisei Main Line.

• ​Local History Floor​​: Renovated in 2020, it allows visitors to trace Katsushika's history and culture chronologically from ancient times to the modern era.
• ​Foucault Pendulum​​: A device demonstrating the Earth's rotation; in Katsushika, the pendulum's plane of oscillation takes about 41 hours to complete one rotation.
• ​Hikifunegawa Water Park​​: From Ohanajaya Station, visitors can walk through this long, narrow park built on the site of an Edo-period waterway.

History and Highlights

The ​Katsushika City Museum of Local History and Astronomy​ opened in July 1991. It brings together a local history museum tracing the history of Katsushika and an astronomy museum exploring the world of the stars into a single institution. It houses exhibits across four fields: history, folklore, archaeology, and astronomy.

The local history floor was renovated in November 2020. The previous thematic exhibitions, "Katsushika and Water" and "Katsushika's Journey," were changed to displays that follow Katsushika City's history and culture chronologically from ancient times to the modern day. Some exhibition areas were designed to allow exhibits to be rotated, making it possible to display newly discovered materials as well as designated and registered cultural properties.

The astronomy floor features a planetarium. Renovated in 2018, it combines an optical system that projects a realistic starry sky with a digital video system that depicts space using computer graphics. Its 18-meter-diameter tilted dome also serves as a landmark for the museum.

Tips for Viewing and Experiencing

• ​Foucault Pendulum​​: A device created by French physicist Léon Foucault to demonstrate the Earth's rotation. The time it takes for the pendulum's plane of oscillation to complete one rotation varies depending on the latitude of the location. It takes about 24 hours at the North Pole and about 41 hours in Katsushika.
• ​Solar Telescope​​: On sunny days, visitors in the astronomy exhibition room can view images of the sun captured by the rooftop solar telescope.
• ​Astronomical Observation Room​​: The room is equipped with a large astronomical telescope, and at observation events visitors can enjoy the real cosmos as seen from the city.

Walking Tips

It is about an 8-minute walk from Ohanajaya Station on the Keisei Main Line. Entering Hikifunegawa Water Park right near the station and walking through the park, which stretches north and south along the road, brings the planetarium dome into view.

Hikifunegawa was the name given to the Kasai Waterway, which was constructed by the shogunate in 1659 during the Edo period to supply drinking water to Honjo and Fukagawa. Because boats were pulled by people, cattle, or horses using ropes, it came to be called Hikifunegawa ("towboat river"). The water park has been laid out over approximately 3 kilometers north to south under the theme of water. In the Shiratori area near the museum, there is a water play area with a babbling stream.