Qualla: Toshimaen: The Carousel That Crossed Three Continents

Toshimaen: The Carousel That Crossed Three Continents: Introduction

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit taken by kentin 2005 August., CC BY-SA 3.0. Theodore Roosevelt rode it. Marilyn Monroe rode it. Al Capone rode it. Built in Munich in 1907 by Hugo Haase in the Art Nouveau style, Carousel El Dorado debuted at Oktoberfest before touring European carnivals and crossing the Atlantic to Coney Island's Steeplechase Park. When that park closed in 1964, the carousel was slated for scrap. Instead, it made one more crossing -- this time across the Pacific to a neighborhood amusement park in Nerima, Tokyo, where it would spin for nearly fifty more years. The carousel's story is the story of Toshimaen itself: resilient, unlikely, and far more interesting than anyone expected.

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Image: taken by kentin 2005 August. | CC BY-SA 3.0

Toshimaen: The Carousel That Crossed Three Continents: From Munich to Coney Island to Tokyo

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit 星組背番号10, CC BY-SA 3.0. Carousel El Dorado was no ordinary merry-go-round. Its rotating floor was divided into three concentric rings, each spinning at a different speed -- the outermost slowest, the innermost fastest. Its figures did not jump. Its ornamentation was pure Art Nouveau, elaborate enough th...

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Image: 星組背番号10 | CC BY-SA 3.0

Toshimaen: The Carousel That Crossed Three Continents: Ninety-Four Summers in Nerima

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit User:Kentin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Toshimaen opened in 1926 in the Nerima ward of Tokyo, owned by the Seibu Group. Over its ninety-four-year life, the park grew into a neighborhood institution with three roller coasters, a water park featuring twenty-five slides and six pools, and that globe-trotting carousel. In ...

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Image: User:Kentin | CC BY-SA 3.0

Toshimaen: The Carousel That Crossed Three Continents: The Last Day and the Wizard's Arrival

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Asanagi, CC0. Toshimaen closed permanently on August 31, 2020, ending nearly a century of operation. The Nerima Ward Assembly submitted an opinion to the Governor of Tokyo requesting that Carousel El Dorado remain in the planned Nerima Castle Ruins Park on the site, but the carousel was disman...

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Image: Asanagi | CC0

Toshimaen: The Carousel That Crossed Three Continents: What Remains, What Waits

Mon, 16 Feb 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit pcs34560, Public domain. Carousel El Dorado sits in storage, its Art Nouveau ornamentation wrapped and crated, its three concentric rings still. Whether it will spin again is uncertain, but the carousel has survived worse -- world wars, financial collapses, a trans-Pacific crossing in six containers. The...

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Image: pcs34560 | Public domain