【Video article】Tracing the history of the 100th anniversary of the company's founding! At the Kuroneko Yamato Museum, adults can also enjoy a social studies tour
The Yamato Group History Museum Kuroneko Yamato Museum, established to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Yamato Group, opened on July 2, 2020. Located about a 10-minute walk from Shinagawa Station, the museum has exhibits of materials and an experience corner where you can learn about the history of the Yamato Group. There is also a café where you can relax. I visited the museum that not only children but also adults can enjoy as if it were a social studies tour.
After completing the reception at the open entrance, we went inside the museum.
The 10-story Yamato Konan Building, where the museum is located, was originally built on the site of Yamato Transport's sales office (then the TA-Q-BIN Center). First, take the escalator to the entrance on the 2nd floor, where the reception desk is located. The glass-walled entrance has a sense of openness and the view is outstanding. You can also see the Takahama Canal facing the building. You can leave your baggage at the locker or reception desk, and strollers and wheelchairs are available for rent, so anyone can visit with peace of mind. After filling in your name and phone number at the reception, get an admission pass and go to the gate!
When you pass through the gate, you will be greeted by a model of the Yamato Konan Building. In fact, this building is a complex facility that also houses the sales office of Yamato Transport. As you can see from the model, the upper and lower slopes of the museum are roadways for collection and delivery vehicles, and it is an unusual structure in which the slope and the roadway are double spirals. Construction-related people sometimes visit the site and are featured in architectural magazines.
During busy times such as weekends and holidays, there may be a waiting time for admission, so if you want to take a leisurely look around, we recommend weekdays when they are relatively free. However, be careful on closed days. Check the official website in advance. In addition, reservations are not required except for groups of 10 people or more and attendance tours, so you can feel free to drop by at any time. Some people stop by while walking.
The exhibition starts from the 6th floor, a course of about 1 hour
Then, take the elevator up to the 6th floor and start the tour. The route to the museum is about an hourly course from the 6th floor and back to the gate on the 2nd floor while following the slope. If you take the time to look around, it will take more time, so if you have a plan, you should pay attention to the pace distribution.
The exhibition is from the "Founding Era" where there is a corner of the founder, Yasuomi Ogura. Founded in Ginza in 1919 as a trucking company, the history of the Yamato Group begins. The state of people coming and going in the streets of Ginza at that time was reproduced by projection mapping.
Truck models and driver's uniforms are also noteworthy. If you take a closer look, you may end up spending quite a bit of time on this floor alone...
In the exhibition, you can learn about the history before the birth of TA-Q-BIN, such as the foresight of the founder and the origin of the company name. In the circular theater, the 100-year history of the Yamato Group and a family is summarized in about 10 minutes and introduced in animation. The large widescreen of about 14 meters is impressive!
Next, we moved on to the "Era of Daiwa Flights and Business Diversification" area. With the abundant materials and videos of that time, it is clear at a glance what kind of business the Yamato Group was engaged in. As a general department store for transportation, they also carried mummies and Van Gogh's sunflowers.
And the origin of the Yamato Group's symbol mark "Black Cat of Parents and Children" is also revealed! The catalyst for the birth of the Neko Mark was a business alliance with a major land transportation company in the United States.
In the 1960s, the Yamato Group faced a crisis. In long-distance truck transportation, it lags behind its peers and is left behind in the development of society. Such a figure of Yamato is expressed in space design. The management of the company is severe, and you can feel how it is falling to the bottom.
After passing through the area with an impressive catch phrase hanging from the ceiling, the familiar "TA-Q-BIN" finally appears. In the "Age of TA-Q-BIN" area, you can learn about the TA-Q-BIN that saved the Yamato Group from a pinch.
We will carefully unravel until the familiar TA-Q-BIN is born.
Born in 1976, the TA-Q-BIN for individuals became a big hit, but there was a difficult road to its birth. In this area, we also introduced Masao Ogura, the second-generation president who is also the creator of TA-Q-BIN. Yamato Transport's TA-Q-BIN was developed despite the opposition of those around it, and was featured in NHK's popular program "Project X ~Challengers~". When you look at the exhibition, it's like you can hear Miyuki Nakajima's theme song "Stars on Earth"?
After that, various delivery products and services such as Cool Takkyuubin and Ski Takkyubin, were born. Many of you may have used it.
The transition of Yamato Transport's sales driver uniforms is also on display. You can see that it has a solid concept but minor changes.
Successive information equipment and packaging materials are also on display, so parents and children may be able to enjoy "nostalgia".
At the TA-Q-BIN Experience Corner, you will transform into a Yamato Transport sales driver!
In addition, at the TA-Q-BIN Experience Corner, which is very popular with children, you can actually wear a Yamato Transport uniform and experience loading luggage. Let's refer to the videos and panels to neatly load various shapes of luggage.
You can also experience the actual ride at the exhibit of the walk-through car used for collecting and delivering luggage. The walk-through car, designed to make it easier to work safely, is one of the highlights of the museum. You can feel like a Yamato Transport Sesuru driver.
As the exhibition drew to a close, the "Era of New Value Creation" area introduced the Yamato Group's initiatives for the future. At the Future Creation Lounge & Library, visitors can watch videos playing in the museum and read related books, and visitors can freely draw the image of the "City of the Future" and put it on the wall. I'm curious to see what kind of future the city others envision.
We returned to the entrance on the second floor, where we started, and the fun social studies tour ended. I want some souvenirs to commemorate it. At the reception, in addition to books related to the Yamato Group, you can also buy three-color ballpoint pens with the museum's original design, A4 clear files, and tote bags. It's a stylish design and makes you want all this...
In addition, at the Yamato Group's Swan Cafe Shinagawa Konan store, which is attached to the building, "Kuroneko Dorayaki" with a cat mark is also on sale. It's a bit of a waste to eat, but the slowly cooked red bean paste from Hokkaido is wrapped in moist dough and is already exquisite! While looking at the Takahama Canal, please enjoy it with a café au lait full of milk with illustrations of black cats. Swan Cafe Shinagawa Konan is one of the stores operated by Swan Co., Ltd. of the Yamato Group. Swan Co., Ltd. manufactures and sells bread and operates cafes with the aim of supporting the independence and social participation of people with disabilities, and currently operates 5 directly managed stores and 20 member stores, and more than 300 people with disabilities are achieving economic independence and social participation.
For more information and how to contact the "Yamato Group History Museum Kuroneko Yamato Museum", please check the official website below. You can enjoy learning about the history of the TA-Q-BIN that you always use, and every day various visitors come to the museum, from student groups to families and couples. Why don't you take a walk once in a while and enjoy an adult social studies tour?
Photo: Midori Shimamura