Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of History

About

This museum's building, on Minaminaka-dori in Naka Ward, Yokohama, was originally the head office of the Yokohama Specie Bank, built between 1900 and 1904 to a design by Yorinaka Tsumaki, with Oto Endo overseeing construction. The building's dome was destroyed by fire during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, and in 1947 the Bank of Tokyo, successor to the Yokohama Specie Bank, began using it as its Yokohama branch. Kanagawa Prefecture purchased the building in 1964, carrying out an extension and renovation that restored the dome lost in the earthquake, and the building opened as the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum in March 1967. In 1969 it was designated a National Important Cultural Property as the Former Head Office Building of the Yokohama Specie Bank, and in 1995 the site itself was designated a National Historic Site. That same year, in March 1995, it reopened as the Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Cultural History, operating since as the only museum comprehensively covering the culture and history of Kanagawa. As of July 2026 the museum is closed, with its official website stating it is scheduled to reopen on October 17, 2026.