Takayama

Around ten minutes’ walk from the station, on the east bank of the Miya-gawa, is the San-machi Suji (三町筋) area of dark wooden merchant houses dating from the mid-nineteenth century. The quarter’s main three narrow streets are most evocative at dusk, when the crowds have thinned. During the day, you’ll have to negotiate your way through rickshaws and tourists pottering in and out of craft shops, cafés and sake breweries.

Before you cross the Miya-gawa, drop by the town’s feudal-era government complex, Takayama-jin’ya (高山陣屋), at the end of Hachikenmachi-dōri, five minutes’ walk southeast of the station. This small-scale palace, originally built in 1615 and the only building of its kind left in Japan, was the seat of power for the Hida area’s governor, appointed by the shogun. Most of the buildings seen today, including a torture chamber and a rice storehouse, date from reconstruction in 1816, and the best way to explore them is to go on one of the free guided tours in English (around 45min).

San-machi Suji has a plethora of small and generally uninteresting museums. The best is the handsome Kusakabe Mingeikan (日下部民芸館), the home of the Kusakabe family, dating from 1879, and an outstanding example of Takayama’s renowned carpentry skills. In the shaded courtyard between the main home and the storehouses, now stocked with folk crafts, you’ll be offered a refreshing cup of tea and a rice cracker.

Five minutes’ walk northeast of the Kusakabe Mingeikan is Takayama’s main shrine, Sakurayama Hachiman-gū (桜山八幡宮), dating back to the fourth century. Here you’ll find the Takayama Yatai Kaikan, the entrance charge to which includes the Sakurayama-Nikkō-kan, a hall displaying a dazzling one-tenth-scale replica of 28 buildings from Nikkō’s Tōshōgū shrine, where a computer controls the lighting to reproduce sunrise and sunset.

It’s also worth checking out the enjoyable demonstration of automated karakuri puppets in the Shishi Kaikan (獅子会館), on the south side of the shrine. A video of a shishi (mythical lion) dance, common to festivals in the Takayama area, is screened at regular intervals during the day, and you can also see many lion masks and musical instruments used in these dances.

Following the narrow Enako-gawa southeast, towards the hills from the Sakurayama Hachiman-gū, will bring you to the tranquil Higashiyama Teramachi (東山寺町) area, where thirteen temples and five shrines are dotted among the soaring pine trees and linked by a pleasant walk that goes over the river to Shiroyama-kōen. This wooded park stands on the remains of Lord Kanamori’s castle, destroyed over three hundred years ago; you can still trace the donjon’s foundations on the top of the hill. The route is signposted and you can pick up a map from the tourist information office.

West of Takayama Station are a few more worthwhile sights, the best of which is the Hida Folk Village, or Hida Minzoku-mura (飛騨民俗村), twenty minutes’ walk from the station, in a lovely hillside location overlooking the mountains. This outdoor museum of over twenty traditional buildings gathered from the Hida area is fascinating to wander around, especially if you’re not planning on visiting the gasshō-zukuri thatched houses of the Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama districts.

The main entrance is roughly 600m uphill, past the first car park and old houses, opposite a row of giftshops. You’re free to explore inside the houses, many of which have displays of farm implements and folk crafts relating to their former owners. The four old houses next to the ticket gate offer a chance to see real artists working at traditional crafts such as lacquering and woodcarving; those at the bottom of the hill comprise the Hida Folk Museum, but are little different from those in the main village. If you don’t fancy walking or cycling to the museum, take a bus; they run to the village every thirty minutes during the day. The Hida-no-Sato Setto-ken discount ticket includes return bus fare and entrance to the village.

On the road up to the Hida Folk Village, you’ll pass the elegant and modern Hida Takayama Museum of Art (飛騨高山美術館), which contains a wonderful glass collection and Art Nouveau interiors. Near the entrance is a beautiful glass fountain by René Lalique, which once stood in the Paris Lido; further on, the collection includes lustrous objets d’art by Gallè, Tiffany glass lamps and the interior designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh and the Vienna Secessionists. The museum also has a pleasant café.

With its golden roof, topped with what looks like a huge red snooker ball, you can’t miss the enormous Main World Shrine, roughly 1km west of Hida Folk Village. This is the headquarters of the Sūkyō Mahikari sect, which combines elements of Shintō with Buddhism and was founded in 1959 by businessman Okada Kotama, after he claimed to have received “revelations” from God. Inside, check out the shrine’s stupendous architecture, built like a stage set for a cast of thousands and including a bizarre replica of Mexico City’s Quetzalcoatl Fountain and two vaguely Islamic-looking towers.