This is Takayama Jinya the only Jinya that remains in Japan today. A Jinya is government building from which officials administered to the affairs of a province that was under the Shogun's direct control during the Edo period. The Takayama Jinya served the Hida province which was taken under the control of the government because of the large amounts of precious metals found there. In this building the rice tax was collected (in Japan you used to pay tax in bales of rice), laws were made, and the province was governed.