In Takaoka, craft tourism adds to the city’s historical festivals and sights that, according to Toyama Prefecture, are already in the top 10 destinations in terms of increases in tourist numbers in the region. Although there are no official figures on Takaoka’s overall drive to promote local industries, the new Nousaku foundry alone has welcomed approximately 110,000 visitors since it opened.
The Nousaku outreach project is just one of many contributions to Takaoka industrial tourism, an initiative that the city has ramped up over the past decade with open-factory tours, hands-on workshops and the introduction of new contemporary goods. And it appears to be hitting the right notes.
Established in 1916, Nousaku began as a casting subcontractor that primarily produced metal Buddhist altar fittings, tea-ceremony utensils and vases. It now also makes interior products and medical equipment in its new foundry, which opened in April 2017. Nousaku not only offers free walk-through tours of the smelting, finishing and polishing processes, but also a conference space, gallery, visitor workshop area, interiors shop and cafe offering lunch sets served on dishes made on the premises.
