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all photos by kentahasegawa

Established in 1981, the Bicycle Culture Center is a unique space in Tokyo where you’ll find anything and everything pertaining to bicycles. They have over 9000 publications pertaining to bicycles. But that’s just for starters – they also have bicycles themselves, rare parts, vintage posters and magazines from around the world.

 

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Originally housed inside the Science Museum, the BCC, as it’s called for short, decided to move out of their parents house in 2013. Thanks to Kato-Sumiyoshi Architects and design fabrication firm TANK, the BCC established a beautiful home on a quite back street just off of busy Meguro-dori.

An elevated platform with continuous book shelving wraps around the space serving as the museum’s library with over over 9000 bicycle-related publications. In the center of the space is an open display area where numerous pullout drawers display artifacts and old parts that tell the history of bicycling.

For those who can speak Japanese but can’t make it to the physical location, the BCC has a fairly extensive archive, with plenty of beautiful Ukiyo-e prints, that tells the history of bicycles in Japan.

Bicycle Culture Center (BCC)
3-3-1 Kamiosaki, Shinagawa-ku, Tokyo (Gmap)
Tel. 03-4334-7953
9:30〜17:00 (closed Mondays)

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the shop is filled with plenty of lovely details, like this bicycle chain used as a space demarcator

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