Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Museum, Iwate

A museum in Hanamaki, home town of Night on the Galactic Railroad author Miyazawa Kenji. His cello and manuscripts reveal a poet who also taught farming.

In the home town of poet and storyteller Miyazawa Kenji

Miyazawa Kenji (1896-1933) was a poet and writer of children's stories, born in what is now Hanamaki city in Iwate Prefecture. He is known for Night on the Galactic Railroad, The Restaurant of Many Orders, Kazeno Matasaburo and the poem Ame ni mo makezu ("Unbeaten by the rain"). Besides writing, he worked as a teacher, an agricultural adviser and an engineer, and he died at 37. He named his ideal world, based on his home of Iwate, "Ihatov", and used it as the setting of his stories.

The Miyazawa Kenji Memorial Museum opened in 1982 on Mount Koshio in Hanamaki. The mountain has deep links with Kenji: it is said to be one of the 32 mountains where he hoped to bury Buddhist sutras.

Kenji's world in five themes

The exhibition is divided into five themes: Sky, Science, Art, Prayer and Farming. It shows how widely Kenji's interests ranged, not just literature but astronomy, science, music and painting, faith and agriculture. Through films, his belongings and manuscripts, it also shows how his works came to be and what research has uncovered.

One of the best-known exhibits is Kenji's own cello. Around the end of 1926 he spent what was then a large sum on a cello and took three days of intensive lessons from a musician in Tokyo. By this time he had quit teaching and started the Rasu Chijin Kyokai (Rasu Farmers Association), holding farming classes and concerts for farmers. The cello now sits in a glass case in the museum.

Other Kenji sites nearby

On the south side of the museum is Polano Square, a garden recreated from a flower bed Kenji designed. Nearby are the Miyazawa Kenji Fairy Tale Village, the Miyazawa Kenji Ihatov Center and the Yamanekoken restaurant, which you can visit on the same trip.

There is also a combined ticket covering the museum, the Hanamaki City Museum, the Nitobe Memorial Museum and others. Allow about 1 to 2 hours to see the exhibition properly.

Getting there

It is about 3 minutes by car from Shin-Hanamaki Station on the Tohoku Shinkansen and about 15 minutes by car from Hanamaki Station on the Tohoku Main Line. By local bus, get off at Kenji Kinenkan-guchi. From Iwate Hanamaki Airport it is about 15 minutes by car.

It is closed every Tuesday (or the next weekday if Tuesday is a public holiday) and over the New Year holidays. Check opening hours and admission on the official Hanamaki city site.

Tips

It is closed on Tuesdays, so keep that in mind when planning your trip.
It is close to Shin-Hanamaki Station on the shinkansen (bullet train), so it is an easy stop on a journey along the Tohoku Shinkansen.

Sources

Updated 30 September 2026. Opening hours and prices change, so check the official site before you go.