Meiji Village Education Museum

The Meiji Village Education Museum occupies a U-shaped building in Tome that housed the Toyoma Higher Elementary School from 1888 to 1973. Several classrooms have been restored to different periods, with displays covering school lunches, sewing machines, textbook pages, and student homework that capture how children experienced major historical events including World War II. The building was designed by Yamazoe Kisaburo, an architect who studied Western design in Europe after building the Japanese pavilion for the 1873 Vienna World Exposition. His exacting standards included weighing each roof tile wet and dry before approving its use. The building is a designated Important Cultural Property.