The World Around Traditional Japanese Toys - And Other

18 Apr 2007 Category: Arts & Crafts, Japan, Worldwide

Be it unusual traditional toys from the Japanese Edo period, Russian dolls or German railway models - the Toy Museum in Nakano, Tokyo, has all of them for display! PingMag went there to experience more of the unique services this peculiar museum has to offer, such as a Toy Library for lending out toys or the Toy Making Classes where people build toys using recycled materials. Miyuki Ueno from the Toy Museum was happy to answer all of PingMag’s questions about the magic world of toys and how important they are in our times…

Written by Ryoko
Translated by Natsumi

Miyuki, when was the Toy Museum established?

Originally, there weren’t any toys involved at the beginning: this facility started as an Art Education Research Centre, doing research on the instruction methods in the areas of art and music for kindergarten and nursery school teachers and the ways of drawing pictures for educational purposes. That was more than 40 years ago at around 1960. But it wasn’t after the Centre started to pay attention to toys during its research in 1984 when this place opened as a Toy Museum.

Why did the Research Centre devoted itself then to toys?

When the staff visited a kindergarten in Europe, they came across high quality toys that were quite different from what was available in Japan at the time. They were astonished by the superb quality of those toys - and also are said to have experienced a great cultural shock. The fact that the toys are an essential part of childrens’ lives, and and on the other hand the difference in the awareness of adults and their culture for toys, made them decide to pay more attention to toys. Since then, the Centre has been collecting toys from around the world. This museum was then opened to make the rapidly expanding collection available to the public.

But why did they get a cultural shock? Isn’t a toy something quite embedded in everyone’s childhood?

Japanese people don’t seem to be aware so much of toys, let alone playing with them. For example, if I point at a Japanese specialist model shop and call it a toy shop, the shop owner is likely to feel insulted that his commodities are just toys instead of models. But the excellence of the craftsmanship in the toys from earlier periods like Edo reminds us how much aware Japanese people must have been about them at the time.

What a pity! But as you told me before, this museum hosts many interesting activities around the toys to raise the awareness nowadays. Please tell us about it…

We sell toys on the ground floor and there is a playroom on the first floor for children to play freely. In the same room, we also have a Toy Library where we lend out around 200 toys free of charge, focusing on European toys selected by the Japan Good Toy Committee. We even have a Toy Hospital where a toy doctor in white coat repairs broken toys. On the second floor, we organise Toy Making Classes where people can experience toy making too.

That makes me curious: what kind of people go to the Toy Making Classes?

In the Toy Making Classes, children, parents, and sometimes elderly people gather to make toys using recyclable materials such as empty cans and milk cartons. The toy making is instructed by professional toy consultants.

What is the message you want to give to children through toy making?

Kids today have less opportunity to make objects, so we want to teach them to use recycled materials and to treasure things. Also, we wanted children to feel the pleasure and joy of handicrafts which got us to start this class.

Are you organizing similar activities outside of the museum?

In the past, we have held a Toy Making Class at a hospital for their summer festival on the premises. We asked the children in the hospital to draw what they liked or whatever they could think of and, usually, kids tend to draw animals or flowers. However, one kid drew a picture of a recovered child getting out of the bed. This made me realise for the first time that such scene was an ordinary part of life for those kids. Also, another child held a doll reproducing the painful experiences of receiving an injection. When I saw that, I figured out that the kids were expressing their painful emotions through the toys.

Are there other places where toys are being used to cheer people up?

Yes, care homes for elderly people for example. One rehabilitation exercise for the elderly is a game with a toy bowling set. As it is much less engrossing than swinging arms 20 times, it can often be a good substitute for rehabilitation. Other than that, we also try to get kids and elderly together: when playing with traditionally common toys such as bottle tops and milk-caps, known as pogs, the older folks brighten up by talking to children. The kids on the other side have admiration and respect for the elderly who teach them how to play with those toys.

Finally, is there something we all could learn from playing with toys?

We would like to see more people regarding toys as an essential part of their playtime. Also, we want everyone to understand that toys are not only for children but are as entertaining for adults too. Moreover, it would be nice if hospitals would acquire more toys for the sake of children’s mental well-being.

Miyuki and everyone at the Toy Museum, thank you very much for your time today!

6 Comments

1. Too bad the article didnt come sooner as i was in nakano 3 weeks ago. I was looking for some interesting traditional japanese toys to buy back. Great Article.

   Posted by: Ed on April 18th, 2007 at 9:05 pm

2. Fun article. On a related note, I have a video on my website traditional Japanese tops., I thought it might be of interest.

   Posted by: Charles on April 18th, 2007 at 11:14 pm

3. it is lovely to see some traditional toys, i am so used to all children’s things being full of electronics.

   Posted by: Anonymous on April 19th, 2007 at 9:43 am

4. [...] about this amazing tree puzzle. Not sure how on earth to get it; being that it’s seemingly only on display at the Toy Museum [...]

   Posted by: Nine Last-Minute Offbeat Worthy Holiday Gifts on December 18th, 2007 at 5:10 pm

5. whooee! great being a kid again; feels like you have all the right to play with all those toys and still look impressive, what with all the innovation in them.

   Posted by: Arjanne on March 17th, 2008 at 8:29 pm

6. Hi, good day to you.
   saw your website picture and is keen to work with you. kindly advice your contactable number and email address by returning this email.
   thank you. garyseow

   Posted by: garyseow on November 21st, 2009 at 1:17 am

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