Hoi An’s Museum of Folklore is located on the river, in the biggest old house in the town, which dates from the 1850s. Nevermind the mistranslated name; the focus here is on the city’s traditions, not myths or legends.

Though the history of the area goes back over a thousand years, the town was completely razed in 1775 during the Tay Son rebellion, and the harbor silted up completely by the end of the 19th century. So, while there are some structures dating from the 17th century, and some from as recently as the 1940s, most buildings here are either early to mid 19th century (in a traditional Viet style with heavy Japanese and Chinese influence),or French colonials built between 1900 and 1920.

This is a wonderfully preserved example of a rather grand Sino-Viet house of the era, built with ironwood and featuring a front, middle and back house, inner courtyard, 2 stories with balconies indoors and outdoors, and paneled wooden rooms carved out of the main space and dedicated as stores, bedrooms, worship rooms, etc. The family who built the house was in the spice trade, which built many fortunes in Hoi An.

Downstairs focuses on traditional trades in Hoi An: weaving, tailoring, lantern making, woodworking, and boatbuilding. There are antique looms, sometimes the sole surviving examples for once-popular techniques. There are also antique examples of rice hulling machines and farming implements. The row of shutter doors in the back house faces directly onto the river, reminding visitors how easy it must have been for traders to conduct their business here.

The upstairs of the front house has displays focusing on special architectural elements specific to the old town (like the Japanese style crab roofs), religious statuary, basket weaving, lacquer work, and festivals. The upstairs of the back house has antique personal effects of generations past: clothes worn by the wealthy and poor, wooden beds and tables, an altar with its accoutrements, a Chinese marriage contract, various tea and wine accessories, oil lamps, lacquered betel boxes, inlaid tea trays, old embroidered silk odds and ends, tiny leather baby boots, lottery tickets.

The array of items shows not only how heavily Chinese immigrants influenced the local lifestyle, but also how far the reach of these traders really went; many of the things didn’t strike me as particularly exotic because they were readily available to wealthy New Yorkers in the the Victorian/Edwardian eras, and still abound in antique shops (if you haven’t been with me long, I’m a Manhattanite).

Probably my favorite thing in the museum was the above lacquer painting, a reproduction of a 17th century original extant in Japan. It’s a map made by Japanese traders showing the Hoi An harbor and surrounds. How different things were 400 years ago! I absolutely love this style of architecture, and truly enjoyed my visit.