Yamato Museum Reopens in Hiroshima Pref. Following Extensive Renovations

The Yomiuri Shimbun

6:00 JST, April 25, 2026

The Yamato Museum, a municipal maritime history museum in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, reopened on Thursday following extensive renovations.

The museum’s signature exhibit is its one-tenth-scale model of the 26.3-meter-long battleship Yamato that showcases the latest research on the sunken ship. The number of exhibits has increased from about 1,800 to about 2,100, and digital exhibits have been upgraded.

The museum, which opened in 2005, temporarily closed starting February last year due to issues such as the aging facilities. The renovation work lasted 14 months.

The Yamato model has been repainted, and the size of the chrysanthemum crest on its bow has been resized following a recent survey in a submersible on the ship that sank off Kagoshima. The survey, conducted by the Kure municipal government in 2016, found that the diameter of the crest was actually one meter after being presumed to be 1.5 meters. Hence, the size of the crest on the model was reduced from 15 centimeters in diameter to 10 centimeters.

The museum is making the most the exhibits’ digital data. Visitors can now search for crew members by the initials of their surnames or birthplaces. The crew’s letters to their families can be viewed on a large display, and visitors can read explanations for the exhibits on their smartphones in more than 20 languages.