By Ines Keane
Takayama is the largest city in Japan by area. Most of that area is mountains.
Where it is
Wikipedia puts Takayama in northern Gifu Prefecture, in the Japanese Alps, and gives its area as 2,177.61 square kilometres, the largest of any Japanese city. It gives the population as 81,968 people in 36,815 households on 1 September 2025, down from a peak of 97,023 around 2000. It says the city was officially established on 1 November 1936 and expanded through municipal mergers on 1 February 2005. The same article says the area was first officially recorded in AD 377. We are reporting that as Wikipedia states it, and we have not checked it against a second source.
The old province
Wikipedia’s article on Hida Province places the province in the north of present-day Gifu, on the west side of the Hida Mountains, with extremely heavy snow in winter. It says the province existed before the formal legal system of 701. It says that by the Nara period the court had created an official position, the Hida-no-takumi, consisting of two craftsmen from the province. It says Kanamori Nagachika built Takayama Castle and became a daimyo under the Tokugawa shogunate, and that from 1692 Hida became direct shogunate territory, overseeing 414 villages. In 1876 it merged into Gifu Prefecture.
Carpenters sent to the capital
Japan House Los Angeles, a cultural institution, gives a larger account of the same tradition. It says the Hida craftsmen rose to prominence in the early eighth century through an imperial directive that let the region meet its tax obligations by sending skilled woodworkers to the capital instead. It says that over 600 years, 40,000 to 50,000 carpenters and artisans were sent to the ancient capital, now Nara, to build temples and shrines. The two accounts differ in scale: Wikipedia describes a court post for two craftsmen, and Japan House describes tens of thousands of workers. We have not found a source that reconciles them, and they may be describing different things.
What the city is known for
Wikipedia lists the local craft traditions as Hida carpentry, Shunkei lacquerware, Ichii wood carving and sake brewing. It describes the Sanmachi historic streetscape, morning markets at Miyagawa and Jinya-mae, and two festivals each year, in spring and autumn, with floats called yatai. It says Lonely Planet named Takayama among Asia’s top ten destinations in 2017.
Wood and lacquer
Japan House describes Ichii as yew wood and says carvers use a single-chisel technique called itto bori. It describes a Shunkei lacquerware studio established in 1850. We are not naming any studio or carver. Both descriptions come from one article, and we have not seen the studios’ own accounts. What the article does make clear is that the same region that supplied carpenters for the capital also supports a set of finishing crafts, and that people still make things in them.
Why it matters for a curator
Takayama is a place where a trade has a traceable lineage, even if the numbers vary. The question for a traveller is not whether the history is old. It is whether the thing you are looking at connects to it.
What to ask before you buy
We have not profiled any maker, workshop or shop in Takayama, and we will not name one we cannot source. If a piece is described as Hida carpentry, Shunkei lacquer or Ichii carving, ask which tradition it belongs to and who made it. Ask what the wood is and where it came from. Ask what finish was used and how many layers. Ask for the maker’s own account in writing. We are not recommending any producer.
Roam first. Shop later.
Hida makers can find out what’s involved at /sell-with-sephari/