Nihon Minka-en

Nihon Minka-en is an open-air museum of Japanese folk architecture in Kawasaki, south of Tokyo. The city opened it in 1967 to rescue traditional dwellings, farmhouses and minor structures of the Edo period that were being demolished in their home villages by industrialisation and the high-growth economy. Today 25 buildings from across Japan stand on a wooded hillside, including a kabuki stage house from Mie, snow-resistant Gassho zukuri farmhouses from Shirakawa-go and houses from islands that have lost almost all traditional architecture. In some buildings the sunken irori hearths are kept lit, so visitors smell wood smoke and feel the warm half-dark of straw-mat rooms. Demonstrations of dyeing, basketry and folk singing complement the displays; a soba restaurant in an old farmhouse rounds off the excursion.