Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum — Attraction in Kawasaki

Excellent museum. We recently started to do this kind of museums whenever we travel. If we see that they have it there we go and check it out.

There are over 20 different houses from different areas of Japan, that have been transplanted here to conserve their heritage and show how people in Japan lived throughout the centuries and differences between different areas of Japan in how they lived and incorporated their livelihood in to their homes.

Also it is interesting to see how the people with money lived compared to the poor within Japanese culture.

What strikes the visitors most, specially us that come from other parts of the World and within our consumeristic current society is how frugal all of them lived. The houses of the rich differentiated from those of the poor, mainly on the size of it as well as the material used for the details. There weren't furniture as such or decorative pieces in 90% of the houses, some detailing on the walls and tatami mats on those that could afford it and the odd murals or paintings.

It is a wonderful exhibit to visit, there are some houses, or were when we visited in middle of October, being refurbished with materials and techniques of the era and that makes it for an even better stroll through the park.

If you like culture, architecture and the way people live, then please do not miss the opportunity to visit...

We went here during our very first Japan trip in April 2024 and had a wonderful day that we will probably still be telling our grandchildren about one day. Originally, we wanted to visit the Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama during our tip, but it was too far away from all of our other travel destinations, so instead we went to this open-air museum Nihon Minka-en, hoping we'd see some of the traditional folk houses of the same time and region. Shortly after entering one of the first folk houses, we met a group of senior volunteer workers sitting around a fire who warmly invited us to join them. One of them was able to tell us a little bit more about their work and the folk houses in English, which was really interesting. After hearing about our discarded plans to go to Shirakawa, Shigeo surprisingly and very kindly offered to give us a spontaneous little tour to show us exactly these folk houses from the same time and place. He was also very interested in hearing more about us and our home country, and we're still exchanging e-mails with him...

A park of Japanese traditional houses divided per region, inside a huge park called Ikuta Ryokuchi. The entrance fee is 500 yen for adult. The area is divided per region, and we can see inside of the houses. Have English translations of what room it is. Depends on the region, the words used to describe the same room like kitchen, are different. You may find one place call a kitchen as something while another place will call kitchen something else, which is fun. If you want to visit this place, I recommend to wear a comfortable shoes because of the location is totally set like the old days, many slopes and just dirt. Also the area of Kabuki stage is especially beautiful in sakura season because it is surrounded by sakura trees. Imagine watching a play and sakura petals...