A unique place to visit in Nakamachi Shopping Street (中町商店街) is the Matsumoto City Hakari Museum (松本市はかり資料館), which is full of measuring instruments. It is one of the best places to learn about various scales and weights used across the globe from various eras.
The museum was the Takeuchi Weights and Measures Shop (竹内度量衡店) from 1902 to 1986. After the shop was closed due to the decline of sericulture, the building and historical documentaries were gifted to Matsumoto City. The city then renovated it into a museum and opened it to the public in 1989. Besides the main museum area, you can also check out the storage in the backyard where you will find exhibits of Japan’s sericulture industry.
Trying Out the Old Scales Used in Japan
There is also an interactive area where you can play around with the scales and weights used until a few centuries ago!
Furthermore, you will also get to try to pack the powdered medicine in the old way. Probably because the museum wasn’t too busy, the staff personally taught me how to fold the paper so the powder wouldn’t escape from the folded paper. It is like putting origami into daily use!
In addition to the scales, there are also interesting exhibits, such as instruments to determine the silkworms’ cocoons’ gender and hair hygrometers. Together, there are more than 600 items on display!
Apparently, if a male is inside the cocoon, it will be 10 mg lighter for silkworms.
Making Your Scale Was Forbidden in Japan
Until today, scales are used for various occasions such as trading, taxes, astronomy, weather, and calendars. So it was not something anyone could make for his pleasure but was strictly regulated and controlled in Japan.
In the Edo period (1603 – 1867), only two clans in the entire country were allowed to manufacture and repair the scales (the Shiyuzui clan (守随家) in Tokyo and the Jin clan (神家) in Kyoto). If you suddenly became innovative and started making scales without permission, you would commit a crime with the same severity as counterfeiting currency.
The 8th century was when the measurement was unified across Japan. However, people in different regions started using their measuring systems over time.
As you can imagine, the unification of the measuring system was a challenging task. A leader who could influence the entire country was needed to make this a reality. After all, who would want to use a different system that one wasn’t used to?
So it wasn’t until Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s era that he made the entire country use the measuring system that was adopted in Kyoto. In the Edo period, the measures and scales were standardized with the absolute power of the Tokugawa shogunate.
In the Meiji period (1868 – 1912), the Western measuring system was introduced to Japan, and the Japanese started using meters to measure length. But it wasn’t until 1966 that the Japanese completely abandoned the traditional measuring system (since it was banned by law to use the old system on land and in property trading and certification documents).
Matsumoto City Hakari Museum’s Opening Hours, Admission Fee, and Access Information
- The museum is open from 9 am to 5 pm from Tuesday to Sunday.
- The last admission is at 4:30 pm.
- If Monday is a public holiday, it will close the next business day.
- The museum also closes from the 29th of December to the 3rd of January.
- The admission fee is
- 200 yen for senior high school students and above
- Free otherwise
- From JR Matsumoto Station (松本駅), it is a 10 to 15-minute walk.
- If you are taking the Town Sneakers’s East Course (東コース), get off at Hakari Shiryōkan (はかり資料館)
- Refer to our Matsumoto City article for more information about the Loop Bus Town Sneakers.
Explore Other Fascinating Attractions in Matsumoto City
Wonder what else in Matsumoto is worth your time? Check out our list of selected attractions in Matsumoto that you won’t want to miss out on.
There are a couple of places where you can source delicious natural water from in the city center, an art museum filled with Kusama Yayoi’s eye-opening contemporary artworks, places perfect for cherry blossom and fall foliage hunting, and a lot more!
For more information, please refer to our article on Matsumoto!
