The Shimadzu Foundation Memorial Hall

Highlight

Visitors can get involved in finding out the wonders of science in the experimenting corner

History of the science that underpinned the modernization of Kyoto

Close by the Takasegawa Canal, in a two-story wooden building, sits this Hall, which was once home and business place to the Shimadzu founder Genzo Shimadzu and his son Genzo Jr., for some 45 years from 1875. The building retains the appearance of a property of the Meiji period, communicating to today’s world that Kiyamachi-Nijo is an integral spot in the development of modern science. What is more, the hall boasts stained-glass windows redolent of cherry blooms and the colors of the nearby Kamogawa River.
The hall has five exhibition rooms, showcasing educational instruments from the founding days, x-ray machines from Taisho era, the first dressmaking mannequin in Japan, specimens and other exhibits, all of which relate how the history of Shimadzu goes hand in hand with Kyoto’s drive to modernize via the scientific knowledge of Europe and America.
The experimenting corner is popular with visitors wishing to have some fun as they learn.