Bank of Japan (Nihon Ginko)

Bank of Japan (Nihon Ginko) Review

The older part of the Bank of Japan is the work of Tatsuno Kingo, who also designed Tokyo Station. Completed in 1896, on the site of what had been the Edo-period gold mint, the bank is one of the few surviving Meiji-era Western-style buildings in the city. The annex building houses the Currency Museum, a historical collection of rare gold and silver coins from Japan and other East Asian countries. There's little English information here, but the setting of muted lighting and plush red carpets evokes the days when the only kind of money around was heavy, shiny, and made of precious metals.