Ryogoku Guide 2026–27: Edo-Tokyo Museum, Hokusai, Chanko Nabe and the Sumo Town by Day of the Week

Ryogoku is Tokyo’s sumo town: the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena, a cluster of chanko nabe restaurants and three of the city’s best history museums all sit within a 10-minute walk of Ryogoku Station. This Ryogoku guide covers the reopened Edo-Tokyo Museum, the Sumida Hokusai Museum, Kyu-Yasuda Garden, the Edo NOREN food hall and where to eat chanko, with 2026 prices and the January 2027 tournament dates.

One thing shapes every plan in this Ryogoku guide: most of the museums close on Mondays. Get the day right and you can do two museums, a garden and a sumo wrestlers’ hotpot lunch in one easy half day, all on foot.

Which day should you visit Ryogoku?

Pick Tuesday to Saturday. The Edo-Tokyo Museum, the Sumida Hokusai Museum and the Japanese Sword Museum all close on Mondays (when Monday is a public holiday they open, then close the next weekday). The free Sumo Museum inside the Kokugikan does the opposite and closes at weekends.

Day	What’s open	What’s shut
Monday	Kyu-Yasuda Garden, Edo NOREN, most chanko restaurants, Sumo Museum (weekdays)	Edo-Tokyo Museum, Hokusai Museum, Sword Museum, Sumo Chaya Terao
Tuesday–Friday	Everything	Nothing regular
Saturday	All museums; Edo-Tokyo Museum until 19:30	Sumo Museum
Sunday	All three museums, garden, Edo NOREN	Sumo Museum; Chanko Ouchi
Tokyo tournament days	Everything; Terao and Ouchi drop their closing days	Sumo Museum is for tournament ticket-holders only

Hours and closing days are from each venue’s official site or Sumida City’s tourism site, checked 23 October 2026. Ryogoku has two separate stations: JR Ryogoku (Sobu Line) and Toei Ryogoku (Oedo Line), about a 7-minute walk apart.

North of the tracks: the Yokoami museum block

Leave JR Ryogoku by the west exit and almost everything big in this Ryogoku guide lies north of you, in the Yokoami district between the railway and the Sumida River.

Ryogoku Kokugikan

The national sumo arena hosts three of the six annual Grand Tournaments: January, May and September. The next one runs from 10 to 24 January 2027, with advance tickets on sale from 5 December 2026, according to the Japan Sumo Association. The 2027 Tokyo dates after that are 9–23 May and 12–26 September.

We won’t repeat the ticket strategy here: seat types, prices and the 10:00 JST sale-day rush are all in our sumo tickets guide. If you can’t get tickets, our sumo show and morning practice guide covers paid shows, stable visits and the free Sumo Museum on the arena’s ground floor.

Edo-Tokyo Museum

The giant museum on stilts next to the Kokugikan closed for renovation in April 2022 and reopened on 31 March 2026, after about four years. It tells the story of the city from Edo to modern Tokyo over two floors (5F and 6F) of permanent galleries covering about 9,000 m², including its full-size reproduction of the Nihonbashi bridge.

New since the reopening: a full-size model of the Hattori clock shop, a symbol of Meiji-era Ginza, a walk-through Asakusa Hanayashiki gate, a model of the Dojunkai Daikanyama Apartments with period furniture, and large screens recreating the skies over Edo. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government says audio guides in 13 languages, including English, run on your own smartphone.

• Permanent galleries: adults ¥800, 65+ ¥400, university and vocational students ¥480, high school ¥300, junior high and under free.
• Hours: 9:30–17:30, Saturdays until 19:30. Closed Mondays (or the next weekday after a Monday holiday) and over New Year.
• Access: 1 minute from Toei Ryogoku exits A3/A4; about 3 minutes from the JR west exit.
• Special exhibitions cost extra and change several times a year (see the winter calendar below). For other big museums, see our Tokyo museum guide.

Kyu-Yasuda Garden

A five-minute walk from the station, this small strolling garden is free and usually quiet. Sumida City says it is thought to date from 1691, built for a daimyo around a pond fed by the tidal Sumida River. Banker Yasuda Zenjiro owned it from 1891 and left it to the city; it opened to the public in 1927 and was badly damaged in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake before that.

The river no longer feeds the pond, so a pump system now recreates the tide’s rise and fall. Look for the arched stone bridge and the Kokoro-ji pond, named for its heart-character shape. It is a Tokyo Metropolitan Scenic Site.

• Admission: free.
• Hours: 9:00–18:00 from October to March, 9:00–19:30 from April to September. Closed 29 December to 1 January, per the Tokyo Metropolitan Park Association.
• Address: 1-12-1 Yokoami. It has a wheelchair ramp and accessible toilet.

Japanese Sword Museum

Just beyond the garden, the Japanese Sword Museum (1-12-9 Yokoami) shows Japanese blades as works of art. Until 20 December 2026 the special exhibition is Kotetsu and Sukehiro, billed as the great masters of east and west among Edo-period swordsmiths. Hours are 9:30–17:00, last entry 16:30, closed Mondays and between exhibitions.

Is the Sumida Hokusai Museum worth it?

Yes, if you like Japanese prints. It is Sumida City’s own museum of Hokusai, and one of the most worthwhile things to do in Ryogoku on a dry or a rainy day. It sits east of the station, a 5-minute walk from Toei Ryogoku exit A3 or about 9 minutes from the JR east exit.

Until 23 November 2026 the 10th anniversary special exhibition shows the museum’s best pieces, led by the long scroll Scenery on Both Banks of the Sumida River, which is re-rolled between periods. The second period runs from 21 October to 23 November. Next, Hokusai Crossover runs from 16 December 2026 to 28 February 2027; on 3 November there is a Hokusai birthday event.

Ticket	Adult	Concessions
Special exhibition (to 23 Nov 2026)	¥1,500	65+ and high school/university ¥1,000; junior high ¥500; primary and under free
Hokusai Learning Room (permanent)	¥400	High school/university and 65+ ¥300; junior high and under free

Hours are 9:30–17:30, last entry 17:00. The museum closes on Mondays (the next weekday after a Monday holiday) and from 29 December to 3 January, per its visitor information page. Between 24 November and 15 December there is no special exhibition, so check what is open before you go.

What is Ryogoku Edo NOREN?

Edo NOREN is a food hall inside the old Ryogoku Station building, which dates from 1929, directly attached to the JR west exit. Inside, 11 restaurants surround an open atrium styled like an Edo-period street, with a full-size sumo ring (dohyo) in the middle that is great for photos.

It is the easiest place in Ryogoku for a mixed group: one person can have sushi, another monjayaki, another chanko, under one roof. The building is open 10:00–23:30 and closes on 1–2 January and on occasional inspection days, according to the operator; each shop sets its own hours.

Where to eat chanko nabe in Ryogoku

Chanko nabe is the hotpot sumo wrestlers eat to bulk up: a big pot of broth with chicken, meatballs, vegetables and tofu, finished with rice or noodles in the leftover soup. Eating chanko is one of the classic things to do in Ryogoku, and Sumida City’s official tourism site lists eight chanko spots here. These are the dedicated chanko restaurants, with the details we could confirm.

Restaurant	Address	Hours	Closed	Style
Chanko Edosawa Ryogoku Sohonten	3-24-11 Ryogoku (1 min from JR east exit)	Mon–Sat 11:30–15:00, 17:00–23:00; Sun and holidays 11:30–21:30	Open all year	Soy-based chicken and pork broth; tatami rooms, groups up to 100
Sumo Chaya Terao	2-16-5 Ryogoku (2 min from JR west exit)	Dinner daily 17:00–22:00; lunch Tue, Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun 11:30–13:30	Mondays, except during the January, May and September tournaments	Light chicken broth, house minced-meat balls
Chanko Ouchi	2-9-6 Ryogoku (4 min from JR)	Mon–Sat and evenings before holidays 17:00–22:00 (LO 21:30)	Sundays and holidays, except during Tokyo tournaments	Traditional chicken soppu broth; linked to former ozeki Ouchiyama
Chanko Dojo Ryogoku Ekimae	1-3-12 Yokoami (1 min from JR)	11:00–14:30, 17:00–23:00	Not listed	Six soy-based chanko; Miyazaki jidori chicken meatballs

Terao was opened by the eldest of the three Izutsu brothers, a famous family of professional wrestlers, according to its own site. For Chanko Kirishima, run by former ozeki Kirishima with a branch inside Edo NOREN, see our sumo show guide.

Book ahead on tournament evenings, and phone ahead if you are dining alone. We have left out prices because the restaurants’ current menus were not published in a form we could check.

What is Ryogoku like during the January 2027 tournament?

From 10 to 24 January 2027, the whole neighbourhood runs on sumo time. Chanko restaurants that normally close one day a week stay open throughout; Terao and Ouchi both say so on their listings.

The flip side: the Sumo Museum is open only to ticket-holders during a tournament, and the streets by the JR west exit fill with ticket-holders in the afternoon. If you are not going to the sumo, the museums are calmer in the morning.

Ryogoku guide to winter 2026–27: what’s on and what’s closed

Late autumn and winter are a strong time for things to do in Ryogoku: the big museums all have new shows. The Edo-Tokyo Museum’s dates come from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s 2026 programme, published in January 2026, so double-check them before visiting.

Dates	Where	What
15 Sep – 8 Nov 2026	Edo-Tokyo Museum	Toyotomi Brothers! NHK Taiga drama special exhibition
24 Oct – 6 Dec 2026	Edo-Tokyo Museum	Japan–US exchange: Rutgers College and Japanese students of the late Edo and Meiji era
24 Oct – 20 Dec 2026	Japanese Sword Museum	Kotetsu and Sukehiro
Until 23 Nov 2026	Sumida Hokusai Museum	10th anniversary: Best of the Sumida Hokusai Museum
28 Nov 2026 – 24 Jan 2027	Edo-Tokyo Museum	Maruyama Okyo special exhibition
16 Dec 2026 – 28 Feb 2027	Sumida Hokusai Museum	Hokusai Crossover
29 Dec 2026 – 3 Jan 2027	Hokusai Museum, Kyu-Yasuda Garden (to 1 Jan), Edo NOREN (1–2 Jan)	New Year closures
2 Jan – 14 Feb 2027	Edo-Tokyo Museum	The Tokugawa shoguns in the late Edo and Meiji era: Tenshoin Atsuhime
10–24 Jan 2027	Ryogoku Kokugikan	January Grand Sumo Tournament
13 Feb – 4 Apr 2027	Edo-Tokyo Museum	Edo Oshare (Edo fashion)

If you are in Tokyo over New Year, Ryogoku is a good 2 January outing: the Edo-Tokyo Museum’s Atsuhime exhibition is scheduled to open that day. More ideas are in our New Year in Tokyo 2027 guide.

A half-day route around Ryogoku

• 9:30 Edo-Tokyo Museum when it opens; allow two hours for the permanent galleries.
• 11:30 Walk two minutes to Kyu-Yasuda Garden for 20 minutes by the pond.
• 12:00 Chanko lunch south of the tracks, or Edo NOREN if your group can’t agree.
• 13:30 Sumida Hokusai Museum, 10 minutes east on foot.
• 15:30 Continue to Kiyosumi-shirakawa for coffee and Kiyosumi Garden, two stops south on the Oedo Line.

Ryogoku guide FAQ

Sources and how we checked

We checked the facts in this Ryogoku guide on 23 October 2026 against the Japan Sumo Association, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Tokyo Metropolitan Park Association, Sumida City and its official tourism site, the Sumida Hokusai Museum, the Japanese Sword Museum, the Edo NOREN operator and the restaurants’ own sites. Some restaurant listings were last updated before 2026, so phone ahead if a visit depends on them.