Meiji Mura
Thursday, November 4th, 2010 in: News
When Kaoru visited back in March, we had plans to go check out Meiji Mura, a “building park” near Inuyama which is home to quite a selection of preserved buildings from, you guessed it, the Meiji era. The park is pretty enormous, with a shuttle bus and tram service to cart lazy visitors around. Some people went to great lengths to move entire buildings to the park, and most of them are still in surprisingly good shape. I was especially interested in visiting the entry hall of the old Tokyo Imperial Hotel, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. In the 60’s, the hotel was torn down, but the preservation society saw the value of saving at least part of the building, and it was carefully dismantled and shipped halfway across the country to its current resting spot.
But due to inclement weather and everyone falling ill at once, we never made it. Everyone deserves a second chance though, right?
My unexpected venture back to Japan gave us another opportunity to go to Meiji Mura together. Hilary had been here all summer, and Kaoru was going to visit anyways, so we finally made it happen. I may not be a huge architectural buff, but this was worth the wait.
The park was enormous and well-tended, and each building was maintained in what I can’t call a state of arrested decay, because there was little to no decay to speak of. We ended up walking pretty much the whole park in order to see all the buildings there, and only missed a few. Meiji Mura is one of those theme parks where you could easily spend an entire day and absorb all kinds of historical knowledge without realizing it.
One of many cathedrals and churches preseved at the park
A turn-of-the-century diplomat's house, with a tableset by Noritake
The lake bordering the park
House of Natsume Souseki, famous Japanese author
For the most part, even the lighting was authentic
old doctor's office
This streetcar was rescued for the park and now carts lazy visitors around
A really cool house that was closed for renovations
The textured wall inside the summer-home that was a mix of eastern and western architecture
Park's shuttlebus
Giant old martial arts gymnasium
Old printing machine!
Inside the saint Francis Cathedral, one of the park's crown jewels
a more low-key approach to church-building, making it look like a farm house on the outside
same building on the inside
My favorite, the Imperial Hotel by Frank Lloyd Wright
so much detail!
from the inside
do not pass go, do not collect $200
Sake vats at the brewery
A small section of the park. that's a prison gate in the foreground, and a part of a bank in the far right
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