Fujii Folk Art Museum 藤井美術民芸館

Also worth mentioning is the Takayama Festival Float Exhibition Hall, displaying magnificent exhibits. The Fujii Folk Art Museum ( Fujii Bijutsu Mingeikan ) is part of this museum ensemble by presenting pieces called "Folk Arts" , that is to say art made by and for the people.

Visit the Fujii Folk Art Museum

In Japan, the recognition of popular arts is recent since it dates from the 1920s. It was Yanagi Sōetsu (1889-1961) who gave his letters of nobility to this artistic category, as well as a name: mingei (compound term from min , popular, and from gei , craft).

The visit to the museum begins from the outside with the magnificent entrance door in cypress wood . The entire building is also in cypress. The museum was created from a private collection, that of Doctor Fujii , a resident of Takayama.

The collections of the Fujii Museum include objects from the folk arts of Japan, but also from China and Korea . 2,500 pieces are presented in the exhibition halls, organized on three floors. On the first floor are the ceramics, on the second the glasses and on the third the weapons. Period furniture is also presented in several rooms. The most remarkable pieces are undoubtedly a set of "Hina" dolls (dolls used in the context of the Hina Matsuri festival, dedicated to Japanese little girls, on March 3), dating from the beginning of the 18th century, and known as from "Kyoho Hina".

To read: Hina Matsuri, the doll party

Very beautiful rolls of paintings by the painter Taikan Yokoyama (1868-1958), belonging to the "Nihonga" current, as well as by the monk Ikkyū (famous for his poems and his calligraphy) are also presented. There are also reconstructions of traditional living quarters, as well as a fine collection of sake bowls .

To discover: Zen painting