I love living history/culture museums, and there are tons in North America, at varying degrees of accuracy vs fantasy… Colonial Williamsburg, Barkerville gold rush town, Museum of Appalachia, Xcaret Eco Park, lots of farm and fort museums, and goofier stuff like renaissance faires.
Do y’all know of similar things in Japan, and do you have favorites? I know about Meiji-mura in Aichi, but haven’t been. Big, small, which of these sorts of museums have you enjoyed?
Thanks!
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Nihon Minka-en (in Kawasaki City, close to Mukogaokayuen Station on the Odakyu Line; 〒214-0032 神奈川県川崎市多摩区枡形７丁目1-1) is enjoyable.
I liked the Hokkaido historical village in Sapporo
Thanks so much for asking this! I am bookmarking the places for sure!
It is kind of notorious as a boring field trip for the students in the prefecture, but Yoshinogari in Saga sounds up your alley — it is a reconstructed Yayoi era village. And maybe Yaima Village in Ishigaki, Okinawa?
Not sure if this is something you would like but I visited here and it was not bad
The Osaka Museum of Housing and Living
06-6242-1170
https://goo.gl/maps/9K8MKWGn6q4zPPTB8
It only takes about 1 hour but they have a day/night system which is interesting
Shikoku Mura in Takamatsu, Kagawa is pretty nice.
Hida Folk Village in Takayama https://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5901.html
Edo-Tokyo Open Air Architectural Museum, Tokyo1: This museum displays historic buildings from the Edo period to the early Showa period, such as farmhouses, samurai residences, and merchant houses. You can enter and explore the buildings and learn about the lifestyles and cultures of the past.
Fukagawa Edo Museum, Tokyo1: This museum recreates a townscape of Fukagawa Sagacho, a commoner’s district in the Edo period. You can experience the daily life of the townspeople, such as shopping at the street stalls, visiting the fire watchtower, and enjoying the seasonal events.
Shikoku Mura, Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture2: This museum exhibits traditional buildings and folk crafts from Shikoku Island, such as farmhouses, watermills, kabuki stages, and stone bridges. You can also enjoy the natural scenery of the Seto Inland Sea.
Has anyone mentioned the bank and ward office yet?
Boso no Mura https://www.visitchiba.jp/spot/boso-no-mura/
Asuke Yashiki in Aichi: http://asukeyashiki.jp
I was a bit skeptical at first before visiting [Edo Wonderland](http://edowonderland.net/) in Nikko, but it’s actually impressively well done and historically interesting.
I think the most famous one (and probably one of the best ones) is the Edo Museum in Tokyo.
While not museums per se, any of the locations on the “Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings” (伝統的建造物群保存地区) list would probably appeal to you as well.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groups_of_Traditional_Buildings
Not sure if this still qualifies, but the Ninja house and weapon demonstration / acrobatic show in Mie, Iga. Really enjoyed all of it, especially the energy and enthusiasm of the acrobats.
It’s a little different than what you’re looking for, but the Tokyo waterworks historical museum in bunkyo has a bunch of information about the water works in Tokyo from edo period to present, and there’s a particular area where you can see/go into a little recreation of the commoner quarters of edo in the edo period. It’s kind of niche but so interesting!
This is a pretty small but nice one in Urayasu, Chiba near TOKYO DISNEY LAND https://assarikunn.wixsite.com/website
Not sure if it counts but I’ve always described the Shin-Yokohama Ramen Museum as a living history type. Love that place.
I know you’re aware of it, but Meiji Mura is just amazing. I go every other year.
There’s also Taisho Mura, in Gifu. It’s not bad. https://goo.gl/maps/MFWp3B8PiRPqr7E19
There’s the Koka Ninja Village in Shiga. I wasn’t a big fan, but it seems to target younger visitors. My wife and kid both enjoyed it. https://goo.gl/maps/NgodhKfYV4pUAh1V8
Similarly, the Iga Ninja House and stage show in Mie. The museum is in English! It’s smaller than Koka but more interesting and educational, at least from an English speaker’s perspective. https://goo.gl/maps/vxiGufb1wx2tK8Cm7
I second the Fukagawa Edo Museum. I went there on a quiet day, and a really nice old man guided us around the entire place. He told us a lot about the life of common people in the Edo period.
A bit further away, but in Okinawa near Churaumi Aquarium, there is the Oceanic Culture Museum Planetarium which was really cool. Not just about Okinawa, but all the Asia Pacific islands. And they have shows in the planetarium which tell you about the stars visible from the island, with headphones available in several languages. Would definitely recommend it to anyone in Okinawa.
Do you like parasites?
Toei Kyoto Studio Park is really interesting in that it’s still got active film sets where a bunch of period Japanese dramas are filmed, you can walk through those street areas modelled after different eras. It’s got snippets of the real Japanese history alongside the many decades of TV/movie history there … and some fun plays/presentations.
Kyoto’s Nijo-Jo (palace of the Shogun) is really cool for the ninja-proof squeaking “nightingale” floors etc but doesn’t have a huge actor component to it … but beautiful and interesting!
Mine Park in Kurihara-shi in Miyagi prefecture is my favourite “what the fuck, Japan??” museum in the whole country. It’s all in old goldmine tunnels which were also where American POWs were forced to mine gold in WWII … and it was an active goldmine from I think the year 900ish until the 1980s. Your tour through mine tunnels starts off with learning some historical things about mining in Japan in different eras … then it progresses to some random underground exhibits that make varying degrees of sense (like a fake dinosaur bone chamber … and an ancient Egyptian tomb chamber …) and some other surprises I really don’t want to spoil.
Ginzan town in Yamagata has really beautiful preserved-in-time onsen, and the town itself is very scenic. I’d recommend for a relaxing weekend getaway.
In Nagano in Jigokudani Monkey Park (where the monkeys go in the hotsprings), there is a family-run inn within the park that has been in the same family for hundreds of years. Not technically a museum, but it FEELS like one. And you can enter the outdoor baths and bathe with the monkeys. Note that this outdoor bath is for both men and women at the same time. Also note that the monkeys do NOT enter the hot springs in the summer; you’ll want to visit in the cold months for that.
Kumamoto castle is the most intact castle in Japan (despite their recent-ish earthquakes), but I’m not sure where they are in the restoration/reopening process. There and Aizu Wakamatsu castle in Fukushima are the two castles I was most impressed with of any I visited in Japan (am thinking I went to 8-10ish castles; I’m not counting palaces).
What a great set of recommendations! Thanks so much, y’all!
I put together a [Google Map](https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=13pOaXfNWjcf6J3QZhvtrDvW0UNjVjsQ&usp=sharing) showing all the recommendations, and will add to the map if more are shared. I couldn’t fit in all the [Groups Of Traditional Buildings](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Groups_of_Traditional_Buildings) from wikipedia, but there’s already a [map of that collection](https://osm4wiki.toolforge.org/cgi-bin/wiki/wiki-osm.pl?project=en&article=Groups_of_Traditional_Buildings).
I can’t wait to visit as many of these as I can!
The Historical Village of Hokkaido in Sapporo is also very good!
Here’s a few that haven’t been mentioned yet:
Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farmhouses, Osaka
(Recommend Expo ‘70 Park nearby, the site of the 1970 World Expo)
Urayasu City Folk Museum, Tokyo
(Adding Metro Museum and Bonsai Museum makes it a full day!)
Tora-san Museum, Tokyo (Showa period)
(You might also like Yamamoto-tei nearby)
It’s already been mentioned but I really enjoyed the Fukagawa Museum, don’t miss the neighbourhood specialty tako meshi! For the Edo Tokyo Open Air Architectural, try eating at the udon shop or the cafe, I believe it’s the only museum I’ve been to that you can experience a meal in the old buildings.
Isn’t there an Ainu Village in Hokkaido, near Muroan I think?
As others have said, the Hokkaido history one is awesome too!
I just got back from the Railway Museum in Saitama and it was pretty rad and I’m not even a big train enthusiast.
Last summer I went to [Dejima in Nagasaki](https://nagasakidejima.jp/english/). I wasn’t expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. They had people walking around in period costume from the various eras it was open talking about things unique to that era. And of course various period buildings (restored and/or rebuilt) with period furniture and whatnot. It was really quite interesting.