National Museum of Ethnology

The National Museum of Ethnology (Minpaku), located inside Expo Commemoration Park in Osaka, is a university joint-use research institute that forms part of the National Institutes for the Humanities and is one of the world’s largest ethnology museums, focusing on cultural anthropology and folklore. Its origins trace back to businessman and ethnologist Keizo Shibusawa, who created an “attic museum” in the attic of his home and collected specimens of plants and animals as well as folk tools. The museum displays daily-life tools and ethnic clothing collected by researchers from around the world, and its exhibitions are broadly divided into “Regional Exhibitions” and “Transcultural Exhibitions.” The regional exhibitions are organized by area—Oceania, the Americas, Europe, Africa, Japan, and others—allowing visitors to travel around the world eastward starting from Oceania. The transcultural exhibitions provide an overview of global cultural themes such as music and language. The museum holds more than 340,000 specimen materials and over 10,000 exhibited items centered on clothing, food, and housing-related tools. Through its library—boasting about 770 video programs and approximately 670,000 books—visitors can enjoy learning about rituals, performing arts, and lifestyles from around the world.