Nanto: Experience Gokayama, museums and culture

Nanto brings together a range of cultural highlights: the inhabited settlement of Ainokura, everyday history in Suganuma, the Hikiyama Festival, and art and hands-on creativity. If you are looking for a hotel in Nanto, these themes can help you decide whether the destination suits your interests. The sites differ in whether they focus on houses and continued habitation, household items, festival culture, individual artists, or a hands-on creative experience.

Ainokura and the protected landscapes

The UNESCO World Heritage village of Ainokura is still inhabited. It has about 20 gassho-style houses and four thatched-roof houses. The combination of traditional house forms and continued habitation shapes the village and sets it apart from a collection of objects displayed on their own. For travelers interested in traditional architecture, Ainokura offers a perspective on a settlement that remains inhabited.

The buffer zones around Ainokura and Suganuma are protected both as historic sites and as Gokayama Prefectural Nature Park. This dual designation adds a landscape perspective to the villages. In Suganuma, the Gokayama Folk Museum displays about 200 household items that illustrate traditional life in Gokayama. The collection brings everyday history to life through tangible objects, offering a different perspective from the houses and protected landscapes.

Festival culture at Johana Hikiyama Hall

Johana Hikiyama Hall focuses on the Hikiyama Festival. Festival floats, Kasaboko floats and Iori-Yatai are on permanent display, and a video about the festival is shown in the lobby. The exhibition offers a material perspective, while the video takes the Hikiyama Festival as its subject. The festival objects on permanent display and the film thus present two different perspectives on the same festival culture. This sets the hall apart both from a collection of everyday household items and from a presentation of individual artists.

Art and hands-on creativity

The Fukumitsu Museum permanently displays works by woodblock artist Shiko Munakata and sculptor and ceramic artist Hidetaro Matsumura. Woodblock printing, sculpture and ceramics represent different artistic disciplines. The focus is on the works of these two artists, rather than on a festival or everyday life in a settlement. In Ainokura, you can also take part in a Gokayama Washi papier-mâché figure painting activity and create your own souvenir from Gokayama. This adds an opportunity to make something yourself to the experience of viewing exhibited works.

How the cultural highlights differ

When planning your trip, it is worth considering these different ways of experiencing the area side by side: Ainokura combines houses in traditional architectural styles with continued habitation, while the Gokayama Folk Museum presents traditional life through household items. Johana Hikiyama Hall focuses on festival culture, while the Fukumitsu Museum focuses on works by two artists. If you want to get creative yourself, painting papier-mâché figures in Ainokura offers a different focus from the exhibitions. These distinctions can help you decide whether Nanto’s cultural perspectives suit your travel interests.

Discover more destinations: Asahi, Kurobe, Nakaniikawa District, Takaoka, Tonami, Himi, Tateyama, Toyama.

For the regional travel overview: Toyama Prefecture.