"Maritime Smithsonian" Born in Yokohama NYK Maritime Museum
May 29, 2003
Luxury Passenger Ships Assembled
The NYK Maritime Museum (director: Seiji Meguro) will be formally dedicated in the Yusen Building at Kaigandori 3-9, Naka-ku, Yokohama on June 7. A renewal of NYK's existing maritime museum, it will feature even more spacious exhibition hall.
NYK Line has, since its founding in 1885, sent a series of luxury passenger ships, such as Hikawa Maru and Tatsuta Maru, crisscrossing the seven seas of the world to provide extensive transport service in the forefront of the maritime state Japan.
To be on display in the new maritime museum are large-scale models of NYK's 10 deluxe passenger ships, including Asama Maru and Tatsuta Maru. Moreover, the giant one-48th models of Asama Maru and Kamakura Maru will measure as long as 3.60 meters. For passenger ship buffs, this collection will indeed represent a "dream luxury fleet" they cannot afford to miss.
In addition, an audiovisual system with a touch panel will enable visitors to watch scenes of international celebrities of bygone days traveling on board NYK's luxury liners, such as the immortal comedian Charles Chaplin of Britain; theoretical physicist Albert Einstein of the U.S.; Helen Keller, an active American lecturer and educator despite being deaf and blind from infancy; and members of a select U.S. Major League baseball team, including slugger Lou Gehrig.
Also to be exhibited are various legacies of NYK's once active freighters, including fixtures of Shinano Maru, which radioed "Enemy ships sighted" at the time of the Battle of the Japan Sea in May 1905, and the nameboard of Noto Maru, which was active but sank during World War II. Thus, the new museum may well be called a maritime version of the noted museum of aircraft Smithsonian in Washington.
Pleasure Spot for Both Adults and Children
In addition to the 900-square-meter exhibition hall (totaling about 900 square meters), the new museum will feature an IT library where visitors will be able to gain an extensive knowledge of today's diversified maritime industry, including large-sized containerships and tankers as well as NYK's luxury cruise ship Asuka.
Besides these exhibits, the NYK Maritime Museum will sponsor a series of events for children during the summer holidays. Therefore, it is believed certain to become a new pleasure spot for both adults and children. So please be sure to have a great time at our new museum!
| Opened to the public from 10 a.m. Sunday June 7 | ||
| Open | : | 10 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. (admission accepted until 4 p.m.) |
| Closed | : | Mondays (but opens on national holidays on Mondays and closes on the following Tuesdays instead) |
| Admission fee | : | Yen500 (Yen300) for adults Yen300 (Yen200) for primary, and junior and senior high school students Fees in parentheses for groups of 15 persons or more, handicapped persons, and people aged 70 and older |