Meiji-mura

Over 60 historical buildings have been moved and reconstructed onto 1 square kilometre (250 acres) of rolling hills alongside Lake Iruka.

While riding the Yamanote line in Tokyo, Taniguchi lamented the sight of the demolition of the Rokumeikan, a symbol of Meiji era architecture.

He appealed to his college classmate Tsuchikawa to join him in working to preserve western style Meiji era buildings of cultural or historical importance.

Meiji-mura was opened on March 18, 1965 on the banks of the Lake Iruka reservoir, operated under Nagoya Railroad with Taniguchi as museum director, with 15 buildings.

Meiji-mura's goal is to preserve these historic early examples of western architecture mixed with Japanese construction techniques and materials.

Incidentally, many of the buildings were saved from demolition during the post World War II period, another time of transition and rapid progress in Japanese history.