The Takayama Jin'ya is a remarkable rarity: a complete, surviving Edo-period government complex, used as the regional headquarters of the Tokugawa shogunate from 1692 until the end of feudal Japan in 1871. Hida was a "shogunal domain" rather than a daimyo's holding, valued for its timber and minerals, and the Jin'ya is where the magistrate ran the place.
The complex includes offices, reception rooms, a torture chamber, kitchens, and an enormous rice warehouse — almost everything an Edo-era bureaucracy needed. A short audio guide in English makes sense of the rooms. Outside the main gate, a small morning market runs every day until noon.