Poronaysk Local History Museum

About museum

The origins of the Poronaysk Local History Museum trace back to a small school museum in a Sakhalin settlement that, since 1994, has grown into an independent cultural center of Sakhalin. Its founder and first director was Vladimir Dmitrievich Fedorchuk.
The pride of the museum are its ethnographic and archaeological collections, in particular the ethnographic collections of the small-numbered peoples of the North of the Far East: Uilta, Nivkh, Ainu, Nanai. Equally unique are the ethnographic collections of Japanese and Korean people. Particularly impressive is the set of ceremonial wedding kimonos (uchikake) and children's kimonos for a boy and a girl. An interesting toy collection is associated with the Boys' Festival — a samurai doll with military attributes. The entrance to the museum is guarded by Japanese sacred dogs that once guarded the entrance to a Shinto shrine. Among the museum's rarities is a collection related to Ainu culture: a whole arsenal of Ainu cold weapons — swords, guards, knives.

The archaeological collection includes objects made of bone, ceramics and metal and can tell about all stages of Sakhalin's ancient history. Especially impressive is the collection of carved bone items, including animal figurines, decorated harpoons and other implements.

Currently the exhibition includes departments of natural history, ethnography, archaeology and modern history, as well as a hall for temporary exhibitions