Kagawa · YashimaNo.1189★★Open in map →

Shikoku Mura Museum

historyOff the trail — and worth it

An open-air museum at the foot of Yashima where houses, sheds and a village playhouse from all four Shikoku prefectures have been rebuilt on a wooded slope. One stone path links them, and the buildings appear in turn as it climbs.

FromTakamatsu-Chikko Station
~30 minKotoden train, then a short walk
Get off atKotoden Yashima Station (Kotoden Shido Line)
On foot
Shikoku Mura Museum

Directions ↗

The sweet spot

This is a well-known stop on the Yashima circuit, not a hidden one. It reads as calm because of its size and its shape: the route runs one way up a wooded hillside, which spreads visitors out along the slope instead of gathering them in a hall.

Where it is

19 more notes in Kagawa · open the map →

What to look for — in walking order

Shodoshima rural kabuki stage663highland / CC BY 2.5

Vine bridgea footbridge of rope and vine strung over the pond just inside the gate
Kono housea thatched farmhouse designated an Important Cultural Property
Sugar-pressing hutsround thatched huts where Sanuki cane sugar was crushed and boiled down
Shodoshima rural kabuki stagea thatched village playhouse facing a curved bank of open-air seating
Shikoku Mura GalleryTadao Ando's concrete gallery and water garden at the top of the walk

How to actually get there

Takamatsu-Chikko Station → Kawaramachi (Kotoden Kotohira or Nagao Line, about 5 minutes).
Kawaramachi → Kotoden Yashima Station (change to the Kotoden Shido Line, about 15 minutes).
Kotoden Yashima Station → the Shikoku Mura gate (walk north to the stone-paved slope).
Follow the one-way route uphill from the vine bridge to the gallery at the top, then come back down to the entrance.

Kotoden from Takamatsu-Chikko, changing at Kawaramachi: Takamatsu-Chikko Station →(Kotoden Kotohira or Nagao Line, about 5 minutes)→ Kawaramachi, then change to the Shido Line for about 15 minutes to Kotoden Yashima Station. The gate is about five minutes on foot to the north. Read the fare posted at the machine rather than an older guide.
Back from Kotoden Yashima Station: Shido Line trains run from Kotoden Yashima to Kawaramachi through the day, with a change there for Takamatsu-Chikko. The museum's own closing time comes well before the last departure, so the return is rarely tight — but check the board at the station rather than guessing.

Directions from my location (Google Maps) ↗

About the place

The grounds cover roughly 50,000 square metres of wooded slope at the foot of Yashima. Thirty-three buildings stand along the paths, each dismantled somewhere in Shikoku's four prefectures and rebuilt here. They are working structures rather than grand ones: farmhouses, a soy sauce brewery, sugar-pressing huts, a rice store, a village kabuki stage. Folk tools are set out inside many of them, so the rooms read as places that were used rather than displayed. A vine footbridge hangs over the pond near the entrance.

How to enjoy it

The museum opens at 9:30 and the ticket desk shuts at 16:30, so an afternoon arrival cuts the upper half of the walk short. The route runs one way up the slope, which makes a morning start the easier one — there is room to turn back to a building worth a second look. Waraya, the thatched udon house at the entrance, belongs to the same grounds.

Background & history

The museum opened in 1976, gathering buildings that rural Shikoku was losing as it rebuilt. The oldest date from the Edo period and the newest from the Taisho era. Nothing here was put up on the spot: every structure was taken down where it stood and raised again on this slope. The thatched Kono house is designated an Important Cultural Property. The concrete Shikoku Mura Gallery, designed by Tadao Ando, was added in 2002.

Before you go

Cash: Admission is charged at the gate, and at the time of checking it was 1,600 yen for adults, 1,000 yen for university students and 600 yen for high school and junior high school students, with elementary age and under admitted free. Parking is free.
Good to know: The museum closes on Tuesdays, and on the following weekday when a public holiday falls on a Tuesday. It also closes when a weather warning is issued for the area. The paths are stone and packed earth on a slope, so they turn slippery in rain.
Another way: From JR Takamatsu Station the JR Kotoku Line reaches JR Yashima Station, which is the other rail approach. The walk to the gate from there is longer than from the Kotoden station, but it avoids the change at Kawaramachi.
After you get off: From Kotoden Yashima Station walk north past the bus stop to the stone-paved slope with the Shikoku Mura marker stone beside it. The ticket window is at the top of that slope.