A Puppet Adventure in the Forest:: Erz Toy Museum:: Karuizawa

Karuizawa is renowned as a summer retreat, thanks to its lush forest scenery and cool, comfortable climate. The town is also home to many unique art museums, all nestled within the forest. Now, let’s go on a quest to find the famous and delightfully European-style Erz Toy Museum (エルツおもちゃ博物馆) hidden in the woods.

Located in Karuizawa, often dubbed “Little Switzerland,” the town is just a one-hour JR ride from Tokyo. It is mainly divided into sightseeing areas such as Old Karuizawa, New Karuizawa, South Karuizawa, and Shiozawa. Arriving near Lake Shiozawa, the hub for arts and culture, you’ll find a picture book art museum and a toy museum standing just across the street from each other.

The Erz Toy Museum (エルツおもちゃ博物馆) primarily showcases finely crafted, high-quality wooden toys produced in Germany, which are world-renowned. “Erz” originally comes from Erzgebirge, a German word meaning “ore mountains.” The village of Seiffen in Germany’s Erz region was once a silver mining site. After the mines were exhausted in the 17th century and with the area’s abundant forests, the villagers turned to making purely handcrafted wooden toys. Over more than 300 years of evolution, about one-third of the population are toy craftsmen who follow a master-apprentice system.

Each workshop in Seiffen village produces toys with its own distinct characteristics. After falling in love with Karuizawa’s European ambiance, the village’s toy museum decided to establish its overseas branch here, making it Japan’s only dedicated museum for handmade wooden toys.

At the Erz Toy Museum, visitors can see many traditional toys from Seiffen, such as nutcracker wood carvings and smoker figurines, along with classic German wooden crafts, toys, and related books, satisfying their curiosity about this whimsical world of toys.

The exhibition halls in the Erz Toy Museum area host seasonal “planned exhibitions” in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, as well as 2–3 “special exhibitions” per year. You can also enjoy an afternoon tea at the museum café and soak in Karuizawa’s leisurely pace. The Forest Life Hall features European-style forest-themed home goods, and if you fall in love with the toys, you can pick up souvenirs at the specialty shop.

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• Erz Toy Museum (Official Website)




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