Saitama City Iwatsuki Doll Museum

A great museum to explore the artistry of Japanese dolls. The collection is big & beautifully preserved. The staff were welcoming, and one member was fluent in English. While much of the information is translated, a photo-translation app is helpful for the rest. I highly recommend this museum to anyone interested in Japanese culture or traditional dolls.

Only regular exhibition is open under this quarantine.

Well maintained relics and artifacts

The museum is not as large as it looks from the outside, but the main dolls are displayed in an easy-to-see manner. The facilities are new and comfortable. The special exhibition features adorable rare animals that you'll see for the first time, and there are worksheets available for you to draw and color with the colored pencils provided in the lobby. There are also photo spots, a souvenir corner, Iwatsuki specialty sweets and restaurants on site, and free parking, so it's a great place to include a short visit when sightseeing in Iwatsuki. Admission is 300 yen.

This relatively new facility opened on Saturday, February 22, 2020 (Reiwa 2). I'm not sure if the numerous "2"s in the number 2 have any deep connection to Iwatsuki or Saitama, but perhaps the opening date was chosen in reference to the "ni" in "ningyo" (doll). The building's site is the former site of Iwatsuki City Hall, making it the heart of Iwatsuki, so to speak. However, walking around the area, there are few people around, and a few shuttered stores. It's a completely lifeless place, and it's more than just disappointing; it's worrying. While it's fine to look forward to the Saitama Rapid Railway, which may or may not be extended, I think that if the town could effectively utilize its unique resources—its cultural heritage post town and traditional Hina dolls—to effectively promote itself both domestically and internationally, it could become a popular day trip destination from Tokyo and regain its former vitality. These days, the word "hinadan" carries a negative image of being a place where entertainers who can't stand up sit, and many people think that's what "hinadan" is. Wrong! "Hinadan" is a place where gorgeous, magnificent hina dolls are enshrined. This is not the time to proudly display the hina dolls exhibited at the Osaka Expo in a doll museum! After the Expo, the dolls should be exhibited around the world, promoting Iwatsuki as "the town of dolls." Ultimately, our goal should be for them to be stolen from the Louvre and the news to spread around the world! Don't be pessimistic; Iwatsuki isn't the only place lacking vitality. Konosu-juku on the Nakasendo Road, famous for its hina dolls, and Koshigaya-juku on the Nikko Road (Oshu Road) are in the same situation. It would be great if these post towns and the towns that thrived on hina dolls could team up to once again raise magnificent hina dolls.