Keihoku Sansato Folk Museum

Highlight

History details that hint at the rich legacies in this community surrounded by the famed Kitayama cedar forests

A historical legacy of a region and the occupations of its inhabitants

This museum was established to preserve and display historical and cultural assets of the Keihoku region, such as educational assets and traditional folk materials and equipment of Keihoku. Among these, the education display depicts how schooling has changed in the rural area of Keihoku and photo panel displays tell the stories of bygone days of elementary schools, which served the community from the end of the Edo shogunate until their closure in 1999. In the cultural assets section, the display provides historical data of how the main livelihoods of forestry and rice growing in Keihoku were put to use in the Heian period, as records show that Keihoku supplied construction lumber and rice to Heian Kyoto. The museum also has archeological finds of tiles from a temple site dating back to the Hakuho and Heian periods, photo panels of Buddha images to be found in the temples throughout the vast Keihoku district, and numerous old documents, such as taxation records on display for visitors to see. The folk collection (agriculture and forestry) is exhibited at the former Hosono Elementary School.