Iwate, Japan Apr. 25 Thurs 5:16PM
Traditional Folk Villages
Tono is a town in Iwate that is known for its rural landscape and traditional culture, including its folklore of Japanese spirits and the supernatural. Storytellers flourished here and eventually were recorded into a book during the Meiji Period called the Legends of Tono, one of the first collections of Japanese folklore. Today, the town has folk museums and villages where storytellings are rendered.
Traditional farmhouses with hatched roofs have been preserved in the region, including the Chiba Residence, which is over 200 years old, but is closed from spring 2016 for about ten years for reonvations. There are folk villages, though, that recreate those thatched- roof houses as well as the surrounding village buildings. The Furosato Village has a great collection and is often used for filiming TV shows and movies. Denshoen is another small folk village with museums focused on the oral folklore of the area, and visitors can participate in storytelling and traditional crafts. Takamuro Suikoen Park is a folk village built around a pond, where visitors can try fishing and cooking in the traditonal Japanese style of the area.