In the northern area of Miyagawa village, there's an impressive museum called the Miyagawa Archaelogical Museum. It is a collection of artifacts from the history of the village, including pottery and tools from ancient times, clothes and farm equipment from the Edo period, and items from the Meiji and Showa periods.
These days, less than 1000 people live in the village. Although, that number is difficult to determine because the village is just one part of Hida City. The totality of Hida City has a population of around 26,000, but the majority of its residents live in Furukawa and Kamioka.
Hida City was officially incorporated in 2004 as a merger of Furukawa, Kamioka, Kawai Village, and Miyagawa Village. Prior to the merger, the population of Miyagawa Village was 1140. Being a single municipality, the junior high and elementary schools were able to consolidate and merge as well.
I call the museum impressive because Miyagawa is not very big, yet this museum has thousands of artifacts collected throughout the history of the village. In the main hall, over 16,000 materials are on display from the Edo, Meiji, and Showa periods.
The first floor of the main hall is dedicated to items of the Edo period. The bulk of the collection is farming and carpentry equipment, but there is also a huge assortment of items used for surviving the harsh mountain winters. Snow removal and travel is of the most importance in the winter, as is winter clothing for inside and outside of the house.
You can see the daily clothing of the people in warmer weather, too. They also had a few horse saddles, which did not look comfortable for either the horse nor the rider.
All these items had been tagged with the general year they were used and the location and family they were from, if that information was available.
In the back, a hallway led to an annexing building that focused on archaelogical digs of the Miyagawa region. Many decorative pots had been reconstructed from their excavations, and believed to be from some time between the Paleolithic and Jomon periods of Japanese history. (14,000 years ago to 2500).
In total, there are 1842 items on display, and perhaps more in the research rooms that are closed to the public.
The most interesting part of the museum to me was the second floor collection of items in the main hall from the Showa and Meiji Periods. The Edo Period is obviously interesting, but I really like the Showa period as it bridges the gap between those old times and today. It's the building blocks of today's society.
There were some items from war, but the most interesting stuff was their massive collection of school items, especially their collection of elementary school diplomas from the last 150 years.
As mentioned above, Miyagawa Village 宮川村 is now just a neighborhood of Hida City having merged together in 2004. But, Miyagawa Village itself was a merger of two other smaller villages, established in 1956. It was the merger of Sakagami 坂上 and Sakashita 坂下 Villages. At the time, Sakagami Village had a population of 2400, and Sakashita had a population of about 1400. Again, today, Miyagawa has less than 1000 people, so they've lost 75% of their population over 75 years.
Going back even further in history, both Sakagami and Sakashita villages were also mergers in 1875, which was Meiji 明治8年, in Japanese years. The merger was part of the overall Meiji restoration of Japan.
From this merger, 4 elementary schools and 4 junior high schools were established for Sakagami 坂上, Sakashita 坂下, Omukari 大無雁, and Tanekura 種蔵. Later, the Omukari and Tanekura junior high schools were merged into Sakagami Junior High.
In fact, the oldest diploma (that I was able to read) in the case was from Meiji 明治12年, which was 1879. The diploma was presented to Matsunosuke Maruyama 丸山松之助 for completing 10 years and 1 month of school. (There was another diploma next to it for 10 yeras 7 months for the same person.)
The diploma was issued by Sakagami Elementary School, but, again, being so early in the Meiji restoration, the location had a different name and even the kanji are now outdated by today's standards. It reads 岐阜縣管下吉城郡坂上村坂上小學校, or Gifu Prefecture Jurisdiction Yoshiki Distirct Sakagami Village Sakagami Elementary School. It wouldn't be until the incorporation of Hida City that Yoshiki District would be abolished.
I find the kanji really interesting. Gifu Prefecture 岐阜縣 is now written as 岐阜県 these days. And school 學校 is now written as 学校. As part of the Post World War II government, many kanji were simplified.
Here's a diploma from Sakagami Elementary again from 明治16年 or 1883. This is to another student of the Maruyama family, probably Matsunosuke's younger brother or sister. The official title of the school changed to 岐阜縣飛騨國吉城郡坂上村公立坂上小學校 or Gifu Precture Hida Province Yoshiki Distinct Sakagami Village Public Sakagami Elementary School. Hida Province and Public were added to the title. This person completed 9 years 6 months of elementary school.
9 or 10 years of elementary school certainly seems like a long time. It wasn't until 1886 that Junior High schools existed in Japan, so prior to that time, the term "elementary" school was generally used to describe all public primary schooling. Anyone who wanted to be a teacher or some kind of scholar would move away and attend a high school. Also in 1886, "normal" schools were established, which focused education on a specific field of study.
Anyways, I stared at the diplomas for a while looking at the dates and marveling at how documents from over 100 years ago were still preserved so well.
Opposite of the diploma display case were items used for these schools. One of the catalogued items on display was the sign board for Sakashita Junior High School. Several photos of classes were pinned to the wall besides it. One photo was of their school trip to Kyoto in 1952. Below was their school manual, and a few textbooks.
The case next to the diplomas was filled was textbooks of the same time period.
Anyways, this museum was pretty incredible. I didn't know this at the time, but because the museum is so big and Miyagawa village is so small, they can't staff the museum all year round. The museum is only open 30 days a year because of that. It's open 3 weeks around Golden Week, during Obon, and a few more weekends in September, October, and November. So, I was pretty lucky to stumble into the museum on a day it was fully open.
I talked with the old man staffing the museum about some of the items and where the old schools were located.
The main area of Sakagami Village is now the downtown area of Miyagawa Village, which is where Miyagawa Elementary school is today. Miyagawa Elementary School was established in 2000, and these days only has 7 students.
But, this is not the same location of Sakagami Elementary School. The old man mentioned that even though that old school had been torn down, the gym of Sakagami Elementary was still in town and in use today.
It was pretty easy to find. It's just down the street from Sakagami Station in the heart of Miyagawa. The building still looks really nice considering it was built 150 years ago. In place of the old elementary school, was some kind of temple. It's called the 世界聖誠会, which Google translates as the World Society of the Holy Spirit. The temple is connected to the gym now, so they use it for something.
I wanted to take a look inside, but everything was closed and all the shades were drawn. And going around knocking on doors didn't seem like a good idea.
Downtown Miyagawa had another relic, the Sakagami Village Post Office. Even the title 坂上郵便局 has its shadow still left on the side of the building. The doors were locked, but I could see inside through the windows. It seemed full of garbage, like old bicycles, wood panels, and other things. Maybe it was once used as storage for festival equipment, but nothing inside seemed useful.
The Sakagami Train Station looked pretty nice and modern. Maybe this was an effort of Hida City to try and get people to visit, but the whole place was deserted. Eventually an old man, possibly drunk, stumbled out of a nearby home to stare at me and figure out why I was snooping around. Eh, I was done here anyway.
The Miyagawa Archaelogical Museum is pretty special. And it's interesting how the museum itself seems to be a relic of the past when Japan had more time, money, and people to put it together. I wonder what other unique museums can be found up here in the mountains.
