#4134

Nihon Minka-en Enjoy a quiet stroll through a collection of old style traditional village houses

A rainbow bridge connecting the past to the future

Escape the busy city for a while and let the olden days of Japan enrich your life. Located in Kawasaki's Ikuta Ryokuchi Park, the "oasis for the heart" of Nihon Minka-en might just bring traditional Japanese scenery alive for you (photo 1).
Nihon Minka-en has 25 structures on display, including traditional village houses typical of east Japan as well as a water mill house, boatman house, stilted storage house (takakura), and farm village kabuki stage (of those 25 structures, 18 are designated as important cultural properties by the national and prefectural government). Also, visitors can learn the basics about these traditional village houses in the Nihon Minka-en main display building.
To let you get a real feel for how people lived in these old traditional village houses, the pathway features stone objects like guardian Dosojin statues, koshinto monuments, horse headed Kannon statues, and signposts and the traditional village house interiors feature daily living tools like farming tools, woven items, straw ware, and bamboo ware on display. Wow, this area really recreates a historically accurate atmosphere (photo 2). Nihon Minka-en also holds an array of events like classes about traditional village houses and folk tools, performances of traditional folk entertainment, and tea parties.
Perhaps the best part of Nihon Minka-en is the "fireside gatherings." Gather around the the flame of a hearth inside an old style traditional village house and listen as a volunteer staff member entertains with immensely charming stories about old style traditional village houses (photo 3). These stories have a wonderfully strange way of enriching your heart. It is an incredible experience!

A collection of traditional buildings only 20 minutes from downtown

The first floor of the main building is a display area and the second floor houses the office and research room. The display area has basic information all about old style traditional village houses. There you can see displays centered around the themes of Japanese traditional village houses, traditional village house construction, traditional village house sites and configurations, fire and trees pertaining to traditional village houses, and day and night at a traditional village house.
Today, traditional style traditional village houses are disappearing in Japan, and preserving them is an urgent task. For example, think about the "Shirakawa-go" area, which is a World Heritage Site. Shirakawa-go incorporates a beautiful city design that keeps the regional climate, history, and folk culture alive through the presence of gassho style thatched roof house traditional village houses. And of course, Nihon Minka-en has a gassho style traditional village house from the Gokayama area in the Etchu region (photo 4). You can take a 20 minute train from the downtown area to see this World Heritage Site and save yourself the trip all the way to the local region --- making a visit to Nihon Minka-en an absolute must. In addition to all of that, a "post town," Shinetsu region village, Kanto region village, Kanagawa region village, and Tohoku region village are on display with an amazing array of resources. What's more, it's all located in an environment that lets you enjoy Japanese tradition in an accessible setting. It's definitely worth seeing!
Visiting Nihon Minka-en really drives home just how in depth the architecture of traditional village houses is. If you take your time walking around the site, there are enough amazing tidbits to keep you busy for at least half of a day, and at the same time there are facilities designed to let you learn all sorts of interesting things. It is great fun to head out for a hike with visits to the Taro Okamoto Museum of Art and the Kawasaki Municipal Science Museum (planetarium), which are located together with Nihon Minka-en in the same Ikuta Ryokuchi Park (photo 5). You are bound to discover all sorts of new things.

Kanagawa P.G.T.D. image

Kanagawa P.G.T.D.

Japan

Kanagawa P.G.T.D.'s other advice

Traditional fire festival at Shonan beach, Oiso SAGICHO. images

Traditional fire festival at Shonan beach, Oiso SAGICHO.

Oiso SAGICHO is the last event of NEW YEAR celebration in SEISHO Area (western district of Shonan, Kanagawa Pref.). Originally, local fishermen operated this event and it has been held for 400 years …

Kokonotuido Home-Fired Suenosato Hand-blown Glassworks Make your own original glass creation images

Kokonotuido Home-Fired Suenosato Hand-blown Glassworks Make your own original glass creation

“Kokonotuido Home-Fired Suenosato Hand-blown Glassworks”, where you can try your hand at glassblowing, is a 10-minute bus ride from JR Ofuna Station. After walking through a peaceful rural area for a…

Yokohama Port Museum and the Training Ship Nippon Maru Learn all about the Port of Yokohama images

Yokohama Port Museum and the Training Ship Nippon Maru Learn all about the Port of Yokohama

Yokohama and its port have an inseparable relationshipMost people immediately associate the words of “harbor” and “ocean” with Yokohama. The “Yokohama Port Museum” and the “Training Ship Nippon Mar…

Kinokoen Oyama no Taisho images

Kinokoen Oyama no Taisho

Providing the rich bounty of nature to urban dwellersEating wood-grown shiitake mushrooms freshly picked? There is a place where such a luxurious delight, hardly imaginable by city dwellers, can…

Kirin Yokohama Beer Village images

Kirin Yokohama Beer Village

Kirin Beer originates from YokohamaThe Kirin Beer Village, where you can learn about the history of beer, is surely a place that any beer-lover would want to visit.Kirin Beer originates from Yoko…

The Silk Museum A specialized silk museum that is out of the ordinary images

The Silk Museum A specialized silk museum that is out of the ordinary

The port of Yokohama has developed dramatically together with raw silk, and at the same time the silk thread industry has supported the Japanese economy. The Silk Museum was established in 1959 as pa…

You might also like

Enjoy bath, Japanese style images

Enjoy bath, Japanese style

Enjoy taking bath with Babu(Bub), a popular Japanese bath tablet to Relax after Exploring Japan on Foot.All travelers know how sight seeing can be exhausting. Especially walking around on foo…

mimichan image

mimichan

5 Traditional Japanese Villages to Explore images

5 Traditional Japanese Villages to Explore

The rural area of Japan is quite worth an exploration. Many villages in Japan have typical Japanese styles. Although they are quite far away from big cities, you can enjoy enchanting natural views an…

Alexlovetravel image

Alexlovetravel

1920's Japanese life style house images

1920's Japanese life style house

I visited a museum near where I live....retaining the old lifestyle from 1920s. http://www.showanokurashi.com/Even for me who was born and grew up in Japan, it was quite interesting....when I…

Zara image

Zara

LOOK application makes you to understand Japanese product by your native language images

LOOK application makes you to understand Japanese product by your native language

▼ Download “LOOK”https://look-goods.com/en“LOOK” is an application that allows foreign tourists in Japan to understand information about Japanese products in their own native language, and shar…

R2C8 image

R2C8

Japanese Perfection in Flower Gift Design images

Japanese Perfection in Flower Gift Design

Japanese Perfection in Flower Gift DesignPutting the “Wow” into flower design.Every time I wonder what to send someone for a birthday, office move or wedding, I think FLOWERs!! Okay, no one w…

K-FLORIST design image

K-FLORIST design

Harajuku on Sunday images

Harajuku on Sunday

Harajuku and Yoyogi Park on a Sunday. The Rockabilly Dancers dance to their own beat and it very fun watching them have fun dancing. They play a variety of 50's style Rockabilly style music, both W…

Kevin image

Kevin