The Hakata Machiya Folk Museum is a relatively small museum that is spread over three Machiya (traditional town buildings). It is much like an introduction into the local history, culture and identity via displays, holograms, reconstructions of traditional buildings and environments, as well as live demonstrations by artisans. Well, this is what the official description is.
However, once you open your other eye, oddly time travel becomes very likely and all the different snippets and artifacts on display start to mingle and let you enter the set of times gone by (mostly Meiji and Taisho Period, i.e. after the opening of the country, before WW2). And as if this was not quite enough, when squinting again and again, even the occasional yokai might pop up around the corner, but I guess that would be up for the evening hours or the night. For day time adventures probably it still needs a couple of decades to imprint the passage of time.
These flowers or to be precise, their seeds are used as part of the Bon Festival as offerings to guide the souls of the deceased.
Further info:
A few Images from the Inside
Inside the Machiya Museum and the restaged old Machiya House ... giant toads and stories linger.
