MATSUDO, Chiba -- "Ok, time to eat!"
Looking at a reproduction of a living room from the Tokiwadaira Danchi housing complex, I could almost hear a housewife calling her family to the table.
The actual housing complex is in the eastern part of Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture. Built by the now-defunct Japan Housing Corporation, it has been occupied since 1960.
The residents of such housing complexes, known as "danchi-zoku," were seen as aspirational.
The Matsudo Museum created this faithful reproduction by examining large photographs taken by newspaper cameramen, studying home economics from the time and interviewing housewives.
The reproduction is of a two-room unit with a dining room and kitchen. A black telephone sits in the corner and on the wall is a print by Seiji Togo, a popular artist of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
The apartment is equipped with the "three sacred treasures" -- a black and white television, electric refrigerator and electric washing machine. It even has an eat-in kitchen, cutting edge back then.
The reproduction is done in elaborate detail, even down to the veranda.
The housing complex has been occupied for almost 60 years. There are about 7,200 current residents. I was surprised to learn their living space was part of a museum exhibition.
"The prototype for how we live now can be found at the Tokiwadaira Danchi," said museum director Fumihito Nakayama.
The Edogawa river flows near Matsudo and the Shimosadaichi plateau spreads in the eastern part of the city. Matsudo has been occupied by humans since the Jomon period (ca 10,000 B.C.- ca 300 B.C.). Located on a rich inlet of Tokyo Bay, the bones of fish, dolphins and sea turtles have been excavated from shell middens.
In the Edo period (1603-1868), the area around what is now Matsudo Station developed as the Matsudo post station along the Mito Kaido main road. Merchants on their way to Edo (current Tokyo) would pass through, and there was also shipping on the Edogawa river.
A diorama based on photographs and other materials from the Meiji era (1868-1912) shows an area just as bustling as it is now.
The museum sees the Tokiwadaira Danchi as an extension of this history.
During the period of high economic growth, Matsudo developed into a bedroom community for salarymen and others who commuted to Tokyo. Times change, but human life, warmth and interactions carry on.
"We want people to feel how history connects the past to the present," Nakayama said.
-- Matsudo Museum
The museum opened in 1993 with the aim of examining human history in a way that is relevant to the people of Matsudo. It has more than 30,000 items, including stone tools, knives, axes and other items unearthed in the city, as well as important cultural properties.
It is a 15-minute walk to the museum from either Shin-Yahashira Station on the JR Musashino Line or Yabashira Station on the Shin-Keisei Line.
Address: 671 Sendabori, Matsudo, Chiba Prefecture
Open: 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. (enter by 4:30 p.m., closed Mondays)
Admission: Adults 300, yen university and high school students 150, yen elementary and junior high school students free
Information: (047) 384-8181
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