Tobacco & Salt Museum

This is a unique museum established in Tokyo's Shibuya District in 1978. Tobacco and salt share something in common as they were both once protected by the government monopoly in Japan. Inside the museum is showcased the entire history and culture relating to tobacco and salt, with the former originating in the ancient civilizations of the Americas, while the latter has deep connections with human life itself. There are sections that introduce material collections such as unusual smoking tools, rock salt of the world, and ukiyo-e (color prints of everyday life in the Edo period). You can also see selected materials out of about 38,000 artifacts both from Japan and overseas in the exhibit hall, which is now twice as big as before the recent relocation to the Sumida ward and renovation in April 2015. It also covers a wide variety of tobacco and salt-related themes in special exhibitions. It has other facilities such as a workshop room, a reading room, a museum shop, and more. It is an eight-minute walk from the Tobu Skytree Line's Tokyo Skytree Station.