2026 Special Exhibition: The Familiar and Profound World of Old Pictorial Maps at Minowa Town Local History Museum

About this event

This special exhibition introduces local history, people's lifestyles, and territorial transitions through old pictorial maps drawn since the Edo period. Old pictorial maps were created by people of the time according to daily lifestyle and administrative needs in order to record village boundaries, forests, fields, roads, rivers, and more. Today, they serve as precious historical materials for learning about lost place names, land usage, and former landscapes. Centering on old pictorial maps handed down in Minowa Town, this exhibition introduces history hidden in familiar local areas while deciphering depicted landforms, paths, and settlement layouts. Paying attention to expressions different from modern maps and detailed information recorded on the pictorial maps allows visitors to consider how forebears recognized and utilized the land. It is an exhibition where you can rediscover traces of history remaining within everyday, familiar scenery from the perspective of old pictorial maps. Main display contents include: old pictorial maps from the Edo period onward as historical materials depicting local topography, settlements, roads, and rivers; village pictorial maps and local life showing information related to contemporary life such as land use status and village boundaries; landscapes surviving in old pictorial maps showing regional transitions revealed through comparison with modern maps and scenery; and deciphering pictorial maps introducing information recorded in old maps through place names, symbols, and color-coding.

Venue

Minowa Town Local History Museum

10286-3 Nakaminowa, Minowa, Kamiina District, Nagano 399-4601