Yama no Rekishikan History Museum
Momosuke Fukuzawa Memorial Museum
The Yama no Rekishikan History Museum, on the left, was originally built in 1900 as the office of the Nagoya Branch Bureau of the Imperial Estates. At that time, it was located on the main street in Tsumago, at the spot where the reconstructed Tsumago primary inn now stands. In 1933, the building was dismantled and sold to a local resident who reconstructed it for use as his home. In 1986, it was targeted by a road-widening project, and the owner presented it to the municipality of Nagiso. It was rebuilt here as a museum annex in 1990.
The Momosuke Fukuzawa Memorial Museum, on the right, was the villa of entrepreneur Momosuke Fukuzawa (1868–1938). Momosuke pioneered the hydropower industry along the Kiso River, becoming enormously rich and earning the nickname of the “Electricity King” in the process. The house was built in 1919, while he was managing the construction of two nearby power plants at Yomikaki and Oi.
The house was an unabashed statement of wealth and power, situated in a prominent position, taller than most other contemporary buildings, and built in what was then a rare and novel Western idiom. The garden originally stretched across the road and contained a pond more or less where the road now runs.
The enormous boulders found dotted about the garden (and between the pilings supporting the house) all came down in landslides. Displayed in the garden is a span of the nearby wooden suspension bridge built by Momosuke to deliver construction materials for one of his power plants. There is also a diesel engine from the local narrow-gauge forest railroad, which operated from the mid-1920s to the mid-1950s.
One ticket provides admission to both museums
Adults: ¥500
Middle School Students: ¥250
Elementary School Students and below: Free
Closed on Wednesdays and from December 1 to mid-March