Let's trace the history of poop and toilets, which supported Japan's development!

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File.26　Kawasaki City Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum : " Poop and Life - From Toilets to Fertilizer - "
Miyuki Inoue (Magcal Editorial Department)

Located in Ikuta Ryokuchi Park, the Kawasaki Municipal Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum is an open-air museum spread across approximately 30,000 square meters, featuring 25 old folk houses, including 7 nationally designated important cultural properties. The lush grounds, where you can enjoy flowers throughout the seasons, are perfect for a picnic.
Amidst this peaceful scenery, a rather unique exhibition is being held.
The title is "Living with Poop - From Toilets to Manure -".
What a straightforward title! I have to go for it!

After buying tickets at the main entrance, the first thing to do is visit the exhibition rooms in the main building.
The exhibition is divided into four chapters, beginning with an introduction to the various tools used in toilets, which are indispensable to our lives, and then clearly showing how human waste has been used or processed.

The title suggests "poop" is the main subject, but let's start with the "urinal" collection.
Its plump shape is adorable, and the colors are vibrant. The rakugo story "Shibin" begins with a samurai visiting an antique shop and buying what he thinks is a vase, and it feels like something that could actually happen.

These are men's urinals and footrests. Perhaps it's a case of "beauty in function," but they look surprisingly natural even when displayed in a case.
The exhibition also covers the history of using human waste as fertilizer, and how Kawasaki City was the first in Japan to use vacuum trucks. It's a compact exhibition, but if you look closely, you'll find it surprisingly profound.

Once you've learned the whole process from toilets to fertilizer, try conducting a field survey in one of the old farmhouses on the park grounds while referring to the "toilet map."
Let's start with the Suzuki family residence, a former horse inn (traveler's inn) on the Oshu Kaido road.

This is a toilet located next to the guest room, and it appears to have been mainly used by hotel guests. Inside, it is divided into two sections: a toilet for defecation and a urinal.

Next up is the Sasaki family residence in Shinshu.
The urinal next to the entrance (in the back right of the photo) was for family use. It was mainly for men, but apparently women also used it when no one was around, which gives a sense of the more relaxed atmosphere of the time. There was a separate hut for defecation.

As the Sasaki family were village headmen, they had a guest toilet for when they received guests such as government officials. It is located at the back of the house and is usually not open to the public, but this time it is being specially opened to the public from the back.

Surprisingly, there are tatami mats laid out.
Apparently, even village headmen didn't use tatami mats in their daily lives back then, so this must have been a rather luxurious toilet.

The Yamada family residence, built in the gassho-zukuri style, even has a gassho-zukuri toilet!
The small hut in the foreground is a toilet called "Henchagoya." It also served as a fertilizer shed and was apparently connected to the main house by a covered bridge.

The Sakuta family residence was the home of a fishing net owner who operated a dragnet in Kujukuri Beach, Chiba Prefecture.

This is a guest restroom, with a urinal at the front and a toilet at the back.
Even though no one was using it, peeking into the toilet felt kind of strange...

This is the urinal in the foreground. By today's standards, it might seem quite spacious.

This is the toilet at the back.
It might be something new to young children, but this shape was common until Western-style toilets became widespread.

The Kitamura family residence, which was relocated from Hadano City, Kanagawa Prefecture, was the home of a village headman and a farmer who cultivated tobacco leaves.

The family urinal is located next to the entrance, just like in the Sasaki family's house.
The toilet was apparently in a separate shed, but the Kitamura family believed that "a dirty toilet will bring bad luck to the family," so the children cleaned the toilet every morning.

Next up is the outdoor toilet at the Koizumi family residence in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa Prefecture. It was located behind the main house and was surrounded by a hedge to prevent it from being seen from the outside.
The one on the right was for feces, and the one on the left was for urine. The feces and urine collected in the cesspools were transferred to a manure pit, fermented for two to three months, and then used as compost for the fields. In the sense that it was indispensable for crop cultivation, there is no doubt that compost made from feces and urine contributed to the development of Japanese society.

If you peek into the "Farm Tools Shed Exhibition Room" next door, you'll find things like manure buckets on display.

Finally, we visited the toilet at the Kudo family residence, a nationally designated important cultural property that was relocated from Iwate Prefecture. It's a large building for a toilet, but it also served as a storage room, and it seems that they kept things like ashes from the hearth used as fertilizer there.

This is what the inside looks like. It's a simple structure with two planks placed over a "toilet pot" for collecting feces. You're allowed to stand on the planks, so you can straddle the toilet pot and get a feel for what it was like in those days.
However, please note that actually using it is not allowed.

"Of course, old houses have toilets. They were popular with the children, so I've always wanted to hold an exhibition focusing on them. Since this is a special opportunity, I hope you'll also consider what happens to the things that come out of the toilets."
According to curator Rina Tamai.

The feces and urine collected from toilets were once effectively used as nutrient-rich fertilizer for growing vegetables. It's natural that the way toilets are used changes with urbanization. However, urination and defecation are inevitable as long as humans are alive. This exhibition will encourage us to think beyond simply defecating and consider what happens "afterward."

This event has ended.
"Living with poop - from toilets to manure"
[Exhibition Period] Until May 31, 2020 (Sunday)
[Time] 9:30-17:00
[Location] Kawasaki City Japan Open-Air Folk House Museum, Main Building Exhibition Room
[Fee] Free (admission fee required)