Visit Japan Web Kusakabe Folk Art Museum
Visit Japan Web invites you to explore Kusakabe Folk Art Museum. When you step into it, it feels like time comes to a halt. It’s a similar sensation to the one experienced when discovering the city of Takayama for the first time.
The Kusakabe Folk Art Museum is a significant representation of its time. It originally belonged to a prosperous family of suppliers who served the Tokugawa shogunate. The residence was reconstructed to its original form in 1879 after being destroyed by a fire in 1875.
This machiya, a traditional merchants’ house, was constructed by Jisuke Kawashiri, a renowned woodworker of that period, and stands at two stories tall with gabled walls, stepped roofs, and a double-height hall. The entire structure is supported by robust beams and posts, topped with gently sloping roofs and broad, low eaves, characteristic of the architecture found in Japan’s mountainous and snowy regions. The Kusakabe residence was the first private Meiji-era house to receive such recognition.
The first thing you notice when you walk into the museum will be the enormous 13-meter-long Japanese red pine beam. The tour then takes you through various rooms such as the kitchen and the Buddhist altar. On the 2nd floor, you can see the kago for the bride of the 9th generation of the Kusakabe family.
Additionally, the folk art museum houses a collection of braziers and 5,000 Hida ceramics on permanent display. A visit to this museum offers a better understanding of both the architecture of the merchants’ houses and the lifestyle of these merchants in the city of Takayama.
