Shizuoka City Museum of History

Shizuoka City Museum of History opened on 13 January 2023 on part of the site of Sunpu Castle, in Ōtemachi, Aoi-ku, Shizuoka City. The building was designed by the internationally acclaimed architecture unit SANAA and completed as a four-story reinforced-concrete structure. An archaeological survey conducted before construction uncovered the remains of a road and stone wall dating from the final years of the Sengoku period, and these remains were incorporated directly into the building, forming the first-floor "history experience" exhibit — visitors can view the excavated remains essentially as found, a feature unique among Japanese museums.

Permanent Exhibition Centered on the Imagawa and Tokugawa Ieyasu

The second-floor permanent exhibition centers on Tokugawa Ieyasu, who spent 25 of his 75 years in Sunpu. A section is devoted to the Imagawa, the Sengoku-period daimyo family based in Sunpu that raised Ieyasu as a child, displaying a portrait and the personal seal (kaō) of Imagawa Yoshimoto and explaining the Imagawa's role in shaping the young Ieyasu. The third floor surveys the prosperity of the Sunpu castle town along the Tōkaidō during the Edo period, through to the development of modern Shizuoka after the Meiji Restoration.

A Sword of Ieyasu, Shown for the First Time

In January 2025, to mark the museum's second anniversary, a sword traditionally attributed to the first-generation Tokugawa shogunal swordsmith Echizen Yasutsugu — inscribed "Katana, forged at Sunshū Sunpu with nanban (foreign) iron, Echizen Yasutsugu" — was placed on public display for the first time, in an exhibition running from 7 January to 2 February 2025. Said to have been forged in Sunpu using imported "southern barbarian" iron, the blade is one of the Sunpu Gobunmotsu, items distributed among Ieyasu's sons after his death, and is traditionally held to have passed to his tenth son, Tokugawa Yorinobu, founder of the Kishū Tokugawa house. As a newly acquired item, it forms one pillar of the museum's presentation of Ieyasu's connection to arms and armor.

Access and Hours

4-16 Ōtemachi, Aoi-ku, Shizuoka. Open 9:00–18:00 (last entry to exhibition rooms 30 minutes before closing), closed Mondays (open if Monday is a public holiday), closed over the New Year holiday. Admission: general 600 yen, high school/university students and Shizuoka City residents aged 70 and over 420 yen, elementary/junior high school students 150 yen (first floor free).