Takayama Shōwa-kan Museum

Nostalgic re-creation of a 1950s-60s Japanese town

A delightfully eccentric private museum recreating Japanese life during the early Shōwa era (the 1950s and 60s) — a town in miniature, with a barber shop, a primary school classroom, a cinema, a candy store, a tatami living room with a television showing period broadcasts, and street after street of objects from the post-war boom years.

A quirky, sometimes moving picture of how rapidly Japan reinvented itself. Allow an hour. Captions are mostly in Japanese but the visual experience is universal.

things to do museum
A story
The museum was opened in 2000 by a private collector who had spent thirty years gathering everything from cigarette tins to school desks and Showa-era manga. The cinema room plays old Toho films and the bedroom recreations include genuine bedding bought from local families.