Teradomari Folk Museum (Exhibitions) 長岡市寺泊民俗資料館（展示）

Fermented foods were a significant part of the diet, so producing them was an important duty assigned to women in the household while men worked in the rice fields or operated fishing boats or trade vessels. Large barrels and other items in the storehouse were used to preserve food in various ways, such as fermenting soybeans into miso, salting fish, or pickling vegetables. One corner of the room also displays a shallow boat used for navigating narrow waterways around rice paddies, traps used to catch small fish, and a ladder used when hanging rice to dry after harvest.

Home Life

This exhibition room is dominated by a life-size model of a living space with a sunken hearth (irori) at the center. Cooking pots or kettles were hung from the adjustable pothook above the hearth. A set of wooden stairs that would have led up to a second floor or attic also function as storage space. The kamidana (household Shinto altar) is situated above a doorway, and a Western-style clock hangs on the wall. Another area of the room has kitchen items and a small cookstove for preparing rice, while the opposite side re-creates a storehouse for possessions such as clothing, ceremonial items, and seasonal furnishings. A colorful display of model foods offers visitors insight into both everyday fare and dishes for special occasions, both of which were rich with seasonal ingredients.

Fishing

A life-size recreation of a traditional boathouse is the central exhibition in this room, which is filled with approximately 230 fishing and salt-making tools. Inside the boathouse are various nets and traps, boat-repair tools, baskets for transporting fish, ropes, buoys, and floating lanterns. One item of particular interest is a thick glass bottle in a wooden, boat-shaped frame that has a piece of ceramic hanging on both sides. This floating frame would be attached to a net or trap so that fishermen could locate it even in darkness by the clacking sound of ceramic on glass. Other sections of the room show an old-fashioned fishing net, which would have required painstaking repairs by hand if damaged; a model of a shallow fishing vessel and the usual food and tools fishermen would take with them for a day at sea; and a display of tools used at home by coastal residents for making salt, which could be sold as a source of extra income. Many people in coastal areas of Teradomari were involved in the fishing industry, whether as a means of making a living or to supplement food stores.