Shikoku Mura Village Museum

Shikoku Mura Village Museum preserves over thirty traditional buildings relocated from throughout Shikoku Island, creating an open-air architectural museum that documents rural Japanese life from the Edo period through early 20th century. The museum sprawls across mountain slopes on the Yashima plateau, with relocated structures arranged along winding paths through forested terrain, each building carefully restored and furnished with period-appropriate tools, furniture, and household items. The collection includes thatched-roof farmhouses, a kabuki theater, lighthouse keeper's residence, sugar-making facility, vine suspension bridge, rural shrine, and merchant townhouses, representing the diversity of traditional Japanese architecture and regional building techniques. Each structure tells stories of how previous generations lived, worked, and adapted to Shikoku's varied geography and climate. The farmhouses display different regional styles, from steep-roofed mountain dwellings designed to shed heavy snow to open coastal homes that maximize air circulation. The vine bridge, originally from remote mountain valleys where such bridges were the only way to cross deep gorges, demonstrates traditional construction using woven vines and cables, with modern safety additions allowing visitors to experience the swaying crossing. The transported kabuki theater from Kotohira features complete stage machinery including revolving stages and trap doors, occasionally hosting traditional performances.