Ise Kawasaki Shounin-kan (Merchant Museum)

Kawasaki, which spreads to both sides of the midstream of Seta River in Ise City, is known as a wholesale district which had developed by water transportation. Particularly during the Edo Period (1600-1868), the district flourished as “Ise’s Kitchen” to provide goods to pilgrims to Ise Jingu. At the time, warehouses and merchant houses stood in a row on both banks of the river so that goods could be carried directly from boats to warehouses.

In the warehouses by a riverside,

there are about 20 shops of handmade products, antique goods, café and so on.

A house with an earth floor connecting the entrance and the kitchen door, which is a typical layout for a Kawasaki merchant house.

It also has a Japanese-style room, a reproduction of the Konnichian tea room of Urasenke in Kyoto, and so on.

A warehouse constructed in the Meiji Period (1868-1912) is used as a multi-purpose space for events, galleries and so on.

It is named after a theater which once existed in Kawasaki.

A warehouse built of fine keyaki (zelkova) wood in 1872.

Here exhibited are historical and cultural resources of Ise and Kawasaki, including Yamada Hagaki, the Japanese oldest paper money.

A repository to preserve historical and cultural resources of the region, including old documents and properties of Ise and Kawasaki.

A reception room which combines Western and Japanese styles. It is equipped with a stove of the modernism style from the Taisho (1912-1926) to the early Showa (1926-1989) Period.