Karakuri Ningyo Dolls and Toyota Commemorative Museum as Resources of Industrial Tourism

There are many Karakuri Ningyo dolls in the Chubu district of Japan. Karakuri Ningyo dolls are, so to speak, wooden automata with exemplification of creative technology unique to Japan. But Karakuri Ningyo dolls have not been appreciated as a significant resource of industrial tourism. The Chubu district of Japan has conserved and cultivated its treasures of Karakuri Ningyo dolls and Karakuri culture in the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology and Toyota company culture. The Museum provides an opportunity to consider the areal power to build up inter‐connectivity between several local industrial elements; cotton manufacture as endogenous industry, nearby wood production and the assembly of skilled craftsman of wood working. So the region is one of the representative industrial tourism destinations which the tourist gaze directs upon. However, the region has not been generally recognized as an attractive destination for industrial tourism. This paper explored the significance of Chubu’s resources of industr ial tourism by tracing the technological development of Karakuri Ningyo dolls and Toyoda looms. This paper also demonstrated the historical uniqueness of the process of the modernaization of Japan.