The is a natural history museum located in the city of

Aomori is the capital city of Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 278,964 in 136,457 households, and a population density of 340 people per square kilometer spread over the city's total area of ...

Aomori Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan in the Tōhoku region. The prefecture's capital, largest city, and namesake is the city of Aomori. Aomori is the northernmost prefecture on Japan's main island, Honshu, and is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to the east, ...

, Japan. The museum focuses primarily on the forest ecosystems of Aomori Prefecture and the history of the

lumber industry The wood industry or timber industry (sometimes lumber industry -- when referring mainly to sawed boards) is the industry concerned with forestry, logging, timber trade, and the production of primary forest products and wood products (e.g. furnitu ...

in the prefecture, though other unrelated exhibits are also maintained.

History

The building that houses the museum was originally the Aomori Bureau of Forestry Building which was built on 13 November 1908. The forestry building was featured in the set of the 1977 film '' Mount Hakkoda'' about the

Hakkōda Mountains incident The occurred on January 23, 1902, when a group of Imperial Japanese Army soldiers became lost in a blizzard on the Hakkōda Mountains in Aomori Prefecture in northern Honshu, Japan, en route to Tashiro Hot Spring located in the Hakkōda Mountain ...

. It was converted into a natural history museum that opened to the public in November 1982.

Exhibits

The Aomori City Forestry Museum's main exhibits are dedicated to the forests and history of the

. These exhibits are held in different rooms throughout the building. The recommended path through the building takes visitors first through an exhibit focusing on the forest ecosystems of the prefecture, with a heavy focus on the various types of trees that grow there. The next exhibit in the museum is dedicated to the historic and cultural aspects of the woodcutting and woodworking industry. It includes examples of folk songs sung by workers, a cross section of a typical house built in the region, tools and apparel worn by laborers in the timber industry, and various crafts by woodworkers. The next exhibit ties the two aspects together and attempts to immerse visitors in what working in the industry was like by displaying more of the tools and crafts of the workers, but also by providing interactive displays. The final piece of the main exhibit is located in a building adjacent to the main building. It houses a train that was used on one of the defunct lumber railways of the prefecture. The museum also has exhibits dedicated to the ''Mount Hakkoda'' film that was filmed there and the nearby

Komakino Site The is an archaeological site located in the city of Aomori, Aomori Prefecture, in the Tōhoku region of northern Japan containing the ruins of a late Jōmon period (approx. 2000 – 1500 BC) settlement. The remains were designated a National H ...

. The Komakino Site exhibit features various artifacts from the

Jōmon period The is the time in Japanese history, traditionally dated between 6,000–300 BCE, during which Japan was inhabited by a diverse hunter-gatherer and early agriculturalist population united through a common Jōmon culture, which reached a c ...

including earthenware, stone tools, and ''

dogū are small humanoid and animal figurines made during the later part of the Jōmon period (14,000–400 BC) of prehistoric Japan. ''Dogū'' come exclusively from the Jōmon period, and were no longer made by the following Yayoi period. There are ...

'' figurines.

References

External links

*{{commons-inline, Aomori City Forestry Museum Museums in Aomori Prefecture Forest museums Government buildings completed in 1908 1982 establishments in Japan

History

Exhibits

See also

References

External links