Takayama · Western Takayama
Hida Folk Village
Hida Folk Village is an open-air museum of old houses moved from villages across the Hida region, on a slope around a pond west of the town. According to the museum, from the mid-50s to the 70s dam building and depopulation wiped out whole villages, and it collected from them more than 30 buildings and about 8,000 tools and household items. Four of the buildings are registered as Important Cultural Properties of Japan.
Six of the houses are thatched houses from the snowy north of Hida, some of them in the gassho style of Shirakawa-go, and six are roofed with split wooden boards. The Wakayama House stood in a village that was to be flooded by the reservoir of the Miboro Dam in 1958. It was moved to Takayama in 1959, and from 1996 it was rebuilt here over about three years. The Nishioka House displays silkworm-raising tools, and according to the museum this is why the thatched roofs are so tall: the silkworms were raised in the attic.
Nobody lives in the houses, but every morning the open hearth (irori) is lit, because the smoke protects the thatch and the wood from insects and rot. In some of the houses craftspeople demonstrate sashiko embroidery, straw weaving, carving and pottery, according to the museum between 10:00 and 15:00 and subject to change.
Good to know
- The Sarubobo Bus leaves from platform 1 at the Nohi Bus Center next to the train station, on the hour and at a quarter past, from 09:00. The ride is 9 minutes and ¥210 each way. The last bus back from the village leaves at 17:09.
- Autumn illumination evenings: from 10 October to 8 November 2026, on weekends and holidays only, 17:30-20:30, ¥300. There is also a Christmas illumination from 19 to 25 December, and a winter illumination from 9 January to 28 February 2027. After 17:09 there is no bus, and you return on foot or by taxi.
- The village has no restaurant, only a rest house with drink machines. At the entrance they lend umbrellas for free, and in the rain and snow season also boots. Wheelchairs and strollers can be borrowed, except from December to March.
- From the village a trail of about half an hour climbs to the ruins of Matsukura Castle, a National Historic Site since 2025, with stone walls. There are bears on the mountain: in August 2026 the traditional market held there was moved into town because of concern about bears. Do not climb alone or toward evening.
What is nearby
Approximate walking minutes from the entrance of Hida Folk Village.
- HereHida Folk Village
- ~2 min
Hida Takayama Crafts Experience Center (Hida no Sato) Shopping
Across from the village. You sew a sarubobo doll, the lucky charm of Hida (¥2,900, about 40 minutes), bake rice crackers (¥1,000 for eight) and more, with no advance booking.
- ~3 min
Hida Takayama Teddy Bear Eco Village, Cafe Yigrec Cafe
A museum of about 1,000 teddy bears in an old gassho house (¥1,000), and next to it a cafe with a Western lunch and tarts made with vegetables from local farms.
- ~5 min
Grill Dining Yashichi (Ryokan Murayama) Food
Yakiniku on smokeless grills in the courtyard of Ryokan Murayama. At lunch a yakiniku set ¥1,100 and a Hida beef rib set ¥2,400.
- ~5 min
Mingei Tanuki Shopping
A shop of old textiles: indigo, sashiko, kasuri and silk crepe.
- ~8 min
Former Nokubi House and Mountain Reference Museum More to see
A house with a wooden board roof that, according to the official tourism website, is the oldest surviving house in Hida, and facing it a museum of mountain equipment in a weather station building from 1903. Both are free.
- ~12 min
Hida Toshogu Shrine More to see
A shrine to Tokugawa Ieyasu that the Kanamori founded at the start of the 17th century inside the castle and that was moved here in 1680. The current hall is from 1818, with a 62-meter lattice fence around it, and it is registered as a Cultural Property of Gifu Prefecture.
Appears in: Takayama: the morning markets, the Sanmachi lanes, sake and Hida beef