Restored Meiji-period wooden merchant houses turned into a museum of Hakata culture; admission 200 ¥.
The Hakata Machiya Folk Museum is housed in three Meiji-era wooden buildings that were moved to their current location in the Gion district and restored using traditional craft techniques. The museum documents and celebrates the culture of the historic Hakata district —which for centuries was a trading port independent of Fukuoka, the castle town— with three permanent exhibitions: everyday life in the machiya (merchant houses), the annual cycle of the Hakata festivals (with special emphasis on the Hakata Gion Yamakasa in July) and the craft of the hakata-ori artisans, the silk weaving with colourful geometric patterns that is the region's most recognisable craft. In the workshop of the third building you can see craftspeople working the weave live and buy authentic hakata-ori products at factory prices. Admission costs 200 ¥. Hours: 10:00-18:00, closed on Wednesdays. It is a five-minute walk from the Kushida-jinja shrine.
