Things to do
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Hida Folk Village
Close to thirty mountain farmhouses were moved onto this hillside to save them, thatched and shingled and steep roofed, ranging from one to five centuries old. They are furnished, not empty: spindles, silkworm trays, cooking gear and clothing sit where they were used. The circuit runs on unpaved paths with steps between houses, which makes it the most physical visit in town.
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Hida Kokubun-ji
Emperor Shōmu ordered a provincial temple in every province in the eighth century and few of them survive; this is one. The foundation stones of its Nara period pagoda are still in the ground and have been a National Historic Site since 1929. It sits a few minutes from the station, which makes it the building most arrivals walk straight past.
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Kusakabe Mingeikan
Purveyors to the shogunal magistrate lived here, and their house burned in the great fire of 1875. A Hida master carpenter rebuilt it four years later in deliberately Edo period construction, ignoring the style of his own day, so a Meiji building stands dressed as an older one. The roof void carries sound well enough that concerts are staged under it. Closed Tuesdays.
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Miyagawa Morning Market
Stalls set up on the road along the river almost every morning, run by a cooperative of the sellers themselves, and counted as one of the three great morning markets in Japan. Takayama has two of them, this one on the bank and another on the square at the magistrate's gate. Both are finished by about noon, which is the fact that decides a morning. Cash is the assumption.
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Sakurayama Hachiman-gū
Half of the Takayama Festival belongs to this shrine and half to Hie on the other side of the river. The autumn half held here gives thanks after the harvest where the spring half asks for a good one, which is why two halves of one festival feel unalike. The grounds are free and the float hall inside them is not. Uphill at the last approach.
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Sanmachi
Three blocks of dark timber merchant houses, about a hundred and fifty metres across and four hundred deep, kept as a preservation district. The name means three towns and covers five street names, so anyone hunting for a street called Sanmachi will not find one. Twenty minutes to walk if nothing detains a visitor, and two hours if the sake breweries do.
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Shōren-ji
A Jōdo Shinshū hall standing in the park on the hill above the old town, reached by a climb of ten to fifteen minutes that most visitors never make. It is usually called Nakano Shōren-ji, because a second temple of the same name sits under a kilometre away in the same small town, and the two are a steady source of confusion.
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Takayama Festival Floats Exhibition Hall
Eleven floats belong to the autumn festival and four are shown at a time, swapped three times a year, so which ones are standing depends on when the visit falls. They carry UNESCO intangible heritage listing. The annexe holds a tenth scale model of the whole Nikkō shrine complex, built over fifteen years by thirty three craftsmen. It opens every day of the year.
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Takayama Jin'ya
Sixty odd shogunal magistrates' offices stood across Japan at the end of the Edo period and this is the only one whose main buildings survive. Inside are a shoin hall of forty nine tatami, a rice store moved from the castle bailey in 1695, and a courtroom with the instruments of interrogation still laid out in it. Shoes come off and no storage is provided, so carry a bag for them.
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Yoshijima House
Sake brewers built this one, twice, after fire took it in 1875 and again in 1905. What the designation rests on is structural: the earth floor and kitchen open the full height to the roof, and the beams and struts cross overhead in a lattice. Three carpentry idioms sit in one house. It stands beside the Kusakabe place, and the comparison is the reason to do both.