The museum first opened in Tenri, Nara Prefecture, Japan, in 1930.

Initially called the Overseas Reference Materials Room (海外事情参考品室), it was renamed the Overseas Reference Materials Hall (海外事情参考品館) in 1938, taking its present name in 1950 when it came to be affiliated with Tenri University.

The museum's collection of over 280,000 objects includes ethnographic and archaeological material from Japan and the rest of the world, as well as transport-related artefacts.

An offshoot, the Tenri Gallery (天理ギャラリー), opened in the Tokyo Tenri Building (東京天理教館) in Chiyoda, Tokyo in 1962.

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