Monday, August 10, 2026
A Tiny House, a Window into History
（小さな家から見えた歴史）
Yesterday, my wife and I visited the Paramita Museum in Komono, Mie Prefecture, for the first time in about three months. We arrived a little after 9:30 a.m., just after the museum opened, so that we could spend the whole morning enjoying a special exhibition called The World of Miniature Dollhouses.
The special exhibition seemed to be very popular. When we entered the museum, there were still very few people, and we felt lucky. But after 10:00 a.m., people started streaming in, and before we knew it, the museum was packed with families.
The exhibition was held on the second floor. The miniatures were displayed along the hallway and in two exhibition rooms.
As we followed the recommended route along the hallway, we were greeted by an impressive four-story Tudor house made by British miniaturist Robert Stubbs in 1980.
It was a beautiful old English house. Each room was filled with tiny furniture, household items, food, and figures of people going about their daily lives. The Tudor house, as the name suggests, was modeled after a typical house from the Tudor period—the time when the Tudor dynasty ruled England from 1485 to 1603.
The Tudor period reminded me of a historical figure I had learned about in high school: Queen Elizabeth I, who ruled England from 1558 to 1603. During her 45-year reign, English culture flourished, and writers such as William Shakespeare rose to prominence. England also grew into a major naval power, famously defeating the Spanish Armada in 1588.
As I thought about the Tudor period in England, I began to wonder what was happening in Japan around the same time. The Tudor period roughly corresponds to Japan's Sengoku period, also known as the Warring States period, when Japan was still divided among powerful regional warlords. During this turbulent period, Oda Nobunaga, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa Ieyasu gradually worked to unify the country.
Since all three were born and raised in this part of Japan, they are considered local heroes and are still celebrated in Nagoya today.
It was particularly interesting to realize that 1603—the year Queen Elizabeth I died and the Tudor dynasty came to an end—was also the year Tokugawa Ieyasu became shogun and established the Tokugawa shogunate. He ushered in the Edo period, which would last for more than 260 years.
Two very different countries reached major historical turning points in exactly the same year.
The more I thought about it, the more similarities I found between Japan and England. Both are island nations located off opposite ends of the same vast continent. Both became major maritime powers at different points in their histories, and both have royal families with histories stretching back many centuries.
Standing in front of that tiny Tudor house and thinking about history this way made it even more fascinating to me. It was no longer just a beautifully made dollhouse. It became a small window into another world.
Of course, the Tudor house was only one of the many fascinating works on display. The exhibition brings together works by miniature artists active in Japan today as well as artists from the past, introducing visitors to the delicate and richly detailed world of miniature art from both Japan and Europe.
As we walked through the exhibition, I was amazed again and again by the incredible attention to detail and by how the artists managed to make everything look so real and authentic. The closer I looked, the more there was to discover and the more surprises I found.
My wife and I enjoyed the exhibition so much that we are planning to visit it again before it ends. Next time, we want to slow down and take an even closer look at these tiny worlds and appreciate the details we missed yesterday.