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This is part of Uncovering Japan, a collection of stories that spotlight the lesser known gems that belong on your Japan itinerary, offering everything from a wellspring of local craft and a vibrant street-food culture to traditional wellness. Read more here.
I recently experienced the most memorable sunset of my life, not on a beach in Santorini but on a hilltop in rural Toyama, Japan. As the sun dipped behind forested hills into the Sea of Japan, the vast Tonami Plain spread out below me, sunlight dancing on its patchwork of flooded rice paddies, as large, gabled farmhouses were thrown into silhouette against the orange sky.
This extraordinary landscape of scattered villages—known as the sankyo-son—is nestled on a 18-mile plain between the 10,000-foot Northern Alps and the 3,000-feet-deep Toyama Bay. Its 7,000 or so farmsteads, each with their own fields and “house forests” of cedar and zelkova, are a unique feature of Toyama—a place where culture is deeply entwined with the land.
Nowhere is this connection more apparent than in Toyama’s craft culture, which has become a draw for visitors, like me, venturing off the east coast Golden Route into the “real” Japan. Spanning mingei folk craft, woodcarving, metal casting, ceramics, lacquerware, mother-of-pearl inlay (raden) and glassmaking, Toyama’s galleries and artisan workshops are spread throughout the prefecture.
To explore them, the place to start is Toyama City, at Kengo Kuma’s eye-catching Toyama Glass Art Museum. You can be delivered there from Tokyo in around two hours via the Hokuriku Shinkansen, whose drivers’ cab windows are, appropriately, crafted in Toyama technical glass.
With its granite, glass, and aluminium façade inspired by nearby Mount Tateyama—one of Japan’s three holy mountains—the museum is a short walk from the station and Toyama Castle. A celebration of Toyama’s glass industry, it showcases post-1950s glasswork and includes a permanent exhibition by Dale Chihuly, created in collaboration with Toyama glassmakers.
Take the tram, or a sightseeing boat along the Fugan Canal, from the city to the coast, to Iwase, once an important port town on the kitamae trade route between Hokkaido and Osaka. Depopulated and dilapidated in recent decades, its compact historic center has been revitalized by local sake magnate Ryuichiro Masuda and is now home to restaurants, studios, and galleries of artisans such as glass craftsman Taizo Yasuda and fine wood sculptor Tsutomu Iwasaki, who hails from nearby Inami—Japan’s most famous wood-carving town. Don’t miss the gallery of cutting-edge ceramicist Gaku Shakunaga, whose tableware is seen in Michelin-starred dining rooms such as three-star SingleThread in California.
Heading west, Takaoka is the heart of Toyama’s metal-casting industry which was centered around Kanaya-machi, a district that retains many well-preserved wholesaler and artisan houses from the late-19th to mid-20th centuries. Bronze makers thrived there, producing artifacts for Buddhist temples. One such is Shimatani Shouryu, makers of handcrafted orin (bowl gongs) and singing bowls since 1909. Visitors to their workshop can try hammering their own small paper-like tin plate called a suzugami. Meanwhile, bronze workshop Momentum Factory Orii has pivoted to creating lighting and interior accessories (clocks, vases, tableware) with patinated copper.
On a larger scale, homeware brand Nousaku was the first to create products made of 100% tin, an innovation driven by its fifth-generation female CEO Chiharu Nousaku. Its contemporary foundry—which also continues to cast bronze artifacts for Buddhist rituals—is open for public tours and hands-on casting workshops. There is also a café and shop beside a striking lobby installation that doubles as a library of in-use casting molds.
Further inland, Nanto lays claim to some of Japan’s finest wood carving, in the town of Inami. Japan’s mingei movement—which emerged in the 1920s, championing the folk crafts of anonymous artisans—is also deeply connected with the area, in particular Zentokuji. This 500-year-old Pure Land Buddhist temple is where mingei philosopher and leader Yanagi Sōetsu wrote an important essay on mingei, and it is possible to visit the tatami room he stayed in. The complex welcomes visitors, who can learn how to make a Buddhist nenju (rosary)—using beads from an ancient cedar cut down in the grounds—or use the serene coworking space. There is accommodation in the renovated former dojo, designed by mingei carpenter and architect Yasukawa Keiichi.
What to buy in Toyama
Tin Kago basket: The most famous product from Nousaku tin foundry is a beautiful and practical pliable-tin basket that can be transformed by bending.
Patinated copper jewelry: Masters of Takaoka copperware, Momentum Factory Orii’s workshop-adjacent shop sells jewelry made using its coloring techniques. Similar items were gifted to former first lady Jill Biden in 2024 at the Japan-US Summit.
Mother-of-pearl inlay glassware: Look out for works by Takeshi Musashigawa, a master artisan of Aogai-nuri, a distinct blue mother-of-pearl inlay unique to Takaoka City. Usually found on lacquerware, Musashigawa has created contemporary raden designs on glass, including covetable sake cups.
Sake KitKats: Available in Japan in all kinds of flavors (matcha, wasabi, sweet potato), the sake version of this ubiquitous candy bar is a collaboration with Masuizumi sake from Masuda brewery in Iwase.
Where to eat
A two-Michelin-starred auberge in the mountains, where chef-patron Eiji Taniguchi utilizes hyperlocal ingredients—including those from his own farm or foraged in the surrounding forest—in his French-Japanese menu.
Bioluminescent firefly squid and translucent Toyama Bay glass shrimp are seasonal highlights of the 10-course menu at this two-Michelin-starred restaurant in Iwase by chef Hironori Fujii.
Tatsuo Ryoke serves fine sushi at his omakase counter in Takaoka on exquisite Suze-ware bowls from Noto Peninsula, ceramics by Gaku Shakunaga, tin plates by Yoshinori Shimatani, and even Edo antiques with kintsugi repairs.
This rustic café-restaurant in the scattered villages is run by Hirotaka and Shiho Akita who serve seasonal vegetables and foraged sansai (mountain vegetables) alongside their homegrown rice.
Close to Toyama station, this bar serves food but the main event is the sake, with tipples available from all 19 of Toyama’s breweries, including IWA, created by Richard Geoffroy, formerly of Dom Pérignon. Retail sales also available.
Where to stay
A three-room luxury inn in a 120-year-old azumadachi farmhouse furnished with contemporary and mingei gems. Two percent of room fees go towards maintaining the local kainyo (house forests). A sculpture by Rei Naito, who is famous for her works on the art islands Naoshima and Teshima, has recently been installed in the garden.
Copper maker Yotsukawa Seisakusho has remodeled two adjacent historic shophouses in Kanaya-machi into high-end rentals that combine contemporary design and period features (even a WW2 bomb shelter in one). Tatami rooms sleep four or eight respectively, while niches showcase the company’s fine bronze castings.
Each of these six villas, renovated by master wood carvers and other craftspeople in Inami, is a work of art in its own right. Overnight guests can participate in a wood-carving print-making workshop led by one of the few female wood artisans.
At Zentokoji temple in Johana, what was once the dojo for monks and followers has been transformed into a simple yet elegant six-bedroom lodge offering a comfortable night’s sleep ahead of 6:30 a.m. sutra chanting.
