Kinkazan Squirrel Village, Animal sanctuary at Mount Kinka, Gifu, Japan

Kinkazan Squirrel Village is a zoo on the summit of Mount Kinka in Gifu, on the route from the ropeway's summit station to Gifu Castle. It consists of an open cage of about 330 square metres holding around 100 Formosan squirrels. Visitors enter wearing leather gloves and can feed the trained squirrels at close range.

The squirrel park opened in 1965 on the summit of Mount Kinka, on the site of a former gunpowder store enclosure (shōendoko) of Gifu Castle; no excavation was carried out there, and construction likely destroyed any stone walls or foundation traces. It is run by Gifu Kankō Sakudō, the company that also operates the Mount Kinka Ropeway. Its squirrels descend from Formosan squirrels that escaped from the 1936 Expo in Gifu Park and went wild; they were recaptured and trained for the park.

The squirrels here descend from animals that escaped from the 1936 "Leap Forward Japan Great Exposition" held in Gifu Park; they were recaptured and trained for the facility. Visitors wear leather gloves and hand-feed about 100 Formosan squirrels inside a roughly 100-tsubo open cage.

The facility sits at the Mount Kinka summit station, on the path from the ropeway to Gifu Castle. From JR Gifu Station take a Nagara-bound Gifu bus about 12 minutes to the Gifu Park History Museum stop, walk about 3 minutes to the Kinkazan-sanroku Station, then ride the ropeway about 4 minutes to the summit.

The squirrels accept nuts directly from visitors' hands and even jump onto their shoulders with ease. These familiar gestures show just how accustomed these animals have become to human presence.