Forest and Riverhead Museum Genryūkan

This modern multimedia museum is the gateway to Kawakami’s natural world. Its two floors of colorful, interactive exhibits introduce the village’s history, the ecology of its streams and forests, and Kawakami’s role in maintaining the entire Yoshino River basin. Genryūkan is also the departure point for many of the village’s tours and field activities.

A visit begins in the museum’s large central auditorium, the Riverhead Forest Theater. One side of the room is devoted to a detailed and lifelike diorama of forest life at the river’s source: real trees, bamboo underbrush, and specimens of local fauna, including a black bear, macaque, and copper pheasant. The other half of the room is a theater with five huge screens that show a 15-minute video on the forest’s appearance from season to season.

Genryūkan’s other primary exhibits include a reconstruction of a village house (complete with tools) from the mid-Edo period (1603–1867), a display showing traditional forestry methods, and aquariums with fish that live in the Yoshino River (known also as the Kinokawa River) and its tributaries. The exhibits emphasize the connections that exist across the entire river ecosystem, from the river’s headwaters to its outlet to the sea, and shows how harm done to the forest or the headwaters can impact the lives and livelihoods of everyone downstream.

The museum also has a gift shop, a small library, and free Wi-Fi.