Hida Folk Village (Hida no Sato)

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About Hida Folk Village (Hida no Sato)

Hida no Sato, the Hida Folk Village, is an open-air museum on a slope west of Takayama’s center. It brings together about thirty houses and rural buildings from the Hida region, from the Edo and Meiji periods, relocated from their original villages and reassembled around a pond, with rice fields, bridges and paths.

Among the houses are several gassho-zukuri, the same steep thatched-roof houses of Shirakawa-go, brought from villages that were flooded by dams or abandoned. There are also farmers’ houses, loggers’ houses and village chiefs’ houses, rice storehouses and a mill. Inside, the houses show sunken hearths, tools, kitchen utensils and the lofts where silkworms were raised.

In some houses, artisans demonstrate regional crafts, such as weaving, yew wood carving (ichii-ittobori) and the making of sarubobo, red faceless cloth dolls, a typical Hida charm. In some hearths, the fire is kept burning as in the old days.

For those who don’t go to Shirakawa-go, Hida no Sato gives an idea of gassho houses. For those who do visit Shirakawa-go, it shows the interiors in more detail. In winter, snow on the roofs and the frozen pond change the scene, and on some nights there is special illumination.