Nihon Minka-en

In the Nihon Minka-en

The Seiji and Ioka House

The Nihon Minka-en ( Japanese 日本民家園 , German: Japanese Volkshauspark) is an open-air museum in the Japanese city of Kawasaki . It opened in 1967 and is sponsored by the city of Kawasaki.

The 23 there translocated People's Housing ( minka ) from the late 17th to early 20th century, mostly from the regions of Kanto (focus Kanagawa ) Shin'etsu and Tohoku . A special attraction is a kabuki stage from Mie prefecture , built in 1857 .

The individual structures

(◎ = important cultural asset of Japan , all other buildings are important cultural assets of the prefecture or the city of Kawasaki. The following 家住宅 means "family home".)

The Suzuki House (鈴木家住宅) is an umayado, a horse dealer accommodation, built in Fukushima at the beginning of the 19th century.
The Ioka House (井岡家住宅), built at the end of the 17th century, comes from Nara. Oil for lamps was initially sold here, and later incense.
The Saji Gate (佐地家の門・供待, Saji no mon, tomo-machi) is the waiting entrance to a samurai residence in Nagoya from the early 19th century.
The Misawa House (三澤家住宅), built in the mid-19th century, comes from a post office in Nagano Prefecture.
The water mill (水車小屋, suisha -goya) from the middle of the 19th century comes from Nagano Prefecture .
The Sasaki House (佐々木家住宅), built around 1731, was the house of a village elder in Nagano Prefecture.
The museum has four Gasshō-style buildings:
1. The Emukai House (江向家住宅, ◎) was built in the early 18th century Nanto ,
2. the Yamada house (山田家住宅) dates from the early 18th century and is also from Toyama Prefecture,
3. the Nohara House (野原家住宅) from Toyama Prefecture dates back to the late 18th century. It has two hearths (囲炉裏, irori),
4. and the Yamashita House (山下家住宅) dates back to the early 19th century and was moved here from Shirakawa ( Gifu Prefecture ).
The late 18th century Sakuda House (作田家住宅, äten) comes from Chiba Prefecture .
The high storage tank (高倉, takakura) from the Amami Islands ( Kagoshima Prefecture ) on stilts protected its contents from rats.
The 17th-century Hirose House (広瀬家住宅) in Yamanashi Prefecture is a compact building with little connection to the outside.
The Ōta house (太田家住宅, ◎), built in the late 17th century in the Bunto style. It comes from Kasama ( Ibaraki Prefecture ).
The Kitamura house (北村家住宅, ◎) comes from Hadano (Kanagawa Prefecture). During the implementation of the house, a document was found that indicates that the house was built in 1687.
The Kiyomiya house (清宮家住宅) dates from the second half of the 17th century, it was in Kawasaki.
The Itō House (伊藤家住宅, ◎) dates from the early 18th century and was the residence of a village elder.
The Kokagesan-Shidō (蚕影山祠堂) is a shrine, built around 1863, in which the god of the silk worm breeders, Kokagesan, was worshiped.
The Iwasawa House (岩澤家住宅) from the late 17th century stood in Kiyokawa.
The Funakoshi Stage (船越の舞台, ◎) is a stage on which Kabuki pieces were performed. The stage was on the Shima Peninsula ( Mie Prefecture ) and dates from 1857.
The Sendō Hut (船頭小屋, sendō-goya) was built in 1929. It was used as a shelter for a boatman on the Tama River .
The kudō house (工藤家住宅, ◎) is a magariya (曲がり屋), a farmhouse that is laid out in an L-shape. It dates from the middle of the 18th century and was located in Iwate Prefecture .
The Sugawara House (菅原家住宅) from the late 18th century stood in the village of Asahi (now the city of Tsuruoka ) in snowy northeastern Japan. It is built in the Yosemune style (寄棟造り).