Yamato Museum, Naval museum in Kure, Japan
The Yamato Museum is a naval museum in Kure displaying a scale replica of a historic warship at one-tenth size. Additional halls present documents on shipbuilding techniques, original aircraft and demonstrations of marine engineering.
The museum opened on 23 April 2005, the centenary of the Battle of Tsushima and the 60th anniversary of the end of the Pacific War. It was built on the site where the battleship Yamato was completed, after mayor Ogasawara Shinya pushed the project from 1993 and the city took it over from the prefecture in 1996. The total cost was about 6.5 billion yen. It closed for renovation from 17 February 2025, reopening on 23 April 2026 with about 2,100 items.
The name recalls the battleship built in local shipyards, whose replica forms the central display. Visitors see through tools and blueprints how the dockyard town became an industrial base for the navy.
The museum closed on 17 February 2025 for renovation and is due to reopen on 23 April 2026; during the closure an antenna site nearby shows some exhibits and a replica Mitsubishi F1M seaplane. The building stands by Kure Station and the Kure Port bus stop "Youmetown Yamato Museum-mae". The 4th-floor observation terrace looks over the harbour area, and the JMSDF Kure Museum with the submarine Akishio is immediately north.
An original A6M Zero fighter hangs in one of the galleries and shows details of metalwork from wartime production. Nearby, experiment stations with water and models explain the principles of buoyancy and ship speed.
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