Verkehr Museum

Welcome to the Verkehr Museum (formerly the Shimizu Port Terminal Museum). Since opening its doors in May 1978, the museum has examined how Shimizu Port—designated by the Government of Japan as both a Specified Important Port and a Core International Port—has shaped regional history and underpinned the nation’s development. The museum’s German name, Verkehr (“intersection,” “traffic,” “exchange”), reminds visitors that a port is perpetually a place where people, goods, and cultures converge.

 

Photography and video recording are permitted in the first-floor exhibition room. To maintain a quiet and respectful atmosphere, we kindly ask visitors to speak softly, silence their phones, and avoid making calls. Your cooperation ensures that everyone can fully experience the history and culture of Shimizu Port in a calm and pleasant setting. Thank you for your understanding.

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We begin by tracing the historical development of Shimizu Port from the Edo period to the present day. In the early Edo period, the port was located at the mouth of the Tomoe River and served as a strategic base for military expeditions to Kyoto. Tokugawa Ieyasu stationed a naval force there and entrusted commercial shipping, maritime security, and emergency response operations to 42 officially appointed shipping firms, known in Japanese as kaisen donya. This system remained in place for approximately 260 years, until the end of the Edo period and the opening of Japan to the outside world.

 

Key artefacts that illuminate this narrative include a full-scale wooden vessel constructed using traditional joinery techniques; merchant account books (daifukuchō) documenting the port’s vibrant trade; exquisitely crafted lacquerware; and export packaging embellished with graphics that demonstrate how aesthetic sensibilities accompanied the flow of goods.

 

Underlying these materials is a spirit of mutual assistance that endures today in the Minato Matsuri (Port Festival) held each summer. We invite you to reflect on this ethical tradition and consider how Shimizu Port continues to link locally driven initiatives to exchanges across the globe.

 

Thank you for visiting the Verkehr Museum. We hope that your journey through the history and culture of Shimizu Port deepens your understanding of Japan’s long dialogue with the sea and fosters new connections at this remarkable maritime “intersection.”