Maizuru

The museum displays bricks from all over the world and all over Japan, as well as ancient ones from Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Greece. Part of Maizuru Brick Park which consists of many brick buildings formerly used by the Imperial Japanese Navy.

The castle gate and a turret have been reconstructed and operate as small museums with information about the castle and a small collection of artifacts. The grounds have a few preserved stone walls and a garden that's worth a look if you're here. While the leader of the castle Tadaoki Hosokawa (formerly Nagaoka) was off preparing to fight in the Battle of Sekigahara, the castle was left to his father, the retired leader Fujitaka Nagaoka. Although Fujitaka was greatly outnumbered, he was so revered that the emperor intervened in order to ensure the battle would end with him unharmed. He possessed knowledge and a book of ancient poetry that were considered so precious that conquering the castle wasn't worth the risk of killing him. This is also why the invading army did not quickly overtake the castle in spite of having 30 times the manpower. Many of the combatants, including the leader, were former students with a high respect for Fujitaka, so their attacks were purposefully ineffectual, such as shooting guns loaded with gunpowder but not ammunition.

Heihachiro Togo was the first admiral of Maizuru Naval District. He famously commanded the Japanese Combined Fleet to victory over Russia at the Battle of Tsushima in the Russo-Japanese War. This was considered to be the first time a non-Western nation won a war against a Western nation and ended Russia's naval dominance in East Asia. He was awarded the Order of the Chrysanthemum and featured on the cover of Time Magazine in 1926. When he died in 1934, naval representatives from the United States, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Italy, and China were sent to his funeral. His former residence is still used as a conference room by Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force and open to the public only once per month.

Exhibits materials about repatriation from China and Korea after the World War II.