Login

Shirakawa Gassho Style Village

More than 100 Gasshozukuri

Shirakawa-go is the home of the Japanese Gasshozukuri, a steep-roofed farmhouse with a unique style, including the gasshozukuri community in Ogimachi. On both sides of the Shokawa River, there are more than a hundred gasshozukuri houses, which are a record of the lives of the local people over the centuries.

Shirakawa-go, located in the northern part of Gifu Prefecture, is the home of the Japanese gasshozukuri (合掌造り) dwellings, and was designated a World Heritage Site in 1995 as Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama.

A wide, winding Shokawa River 荘川 runs through Shirakawa-go 白川郷, and there are more than a hundred large and small gasshozukuri houses on both sides of the river, Ogimachi Gasshozukuri Cluster 荻町の合掌造り集落 is the essence of Shirakawa-go.

Gasshozukuri is a traditional Japanese farmhouse with a A-Shaped Roof, which look like hands clasped together, thus named “prayer-hands construction” style. The gasshozukuri houses are built without nails, relying only on wood and rope, with a thatched roof. This structure reduces the threat posed to the house by monsoons and earthquakes, and The Steep Roof also effectively relieves the pressure of snow.

Villagers grow their own loofah under the eaves

Gasshozukuri houses are suitable for living as a family together, and the families able to build houses of this size were generally wealthy merchants and prominent families in the area. The Wada 和田家, Kanda 神田家, and Nagase 長瀬家 families that still exist in Ogimachi were some of the local chiefs and some of the prominent families who served the daimyos of the warring states.

Shirakawa Village - Wada House

Largest Gasshozukuri in Shirakawa

The Wada family was once one of the wealthiest families in Shirakawa Village, so the Wada family house, built in the Edo period, is of course one of the largest here. The house consisted of a main house, a warehouse and a toilet, and inside the house, there are exhibitions of sericulture tools and the family's collections.

Shirakawa Village - Kanda House

A Classic Gasshozukuri

The Kanda family was separated from the Wada family in Shirakawa-go and built this Kanda house around 1850. The Kanda Family House is a large house with an improved design, which is highly resistant to earthquakes and fire.

Shirakawa Village - Nagase House

Ingeniously Constructed

The Nagase family, originally doctors from the Maeda clan of the Kaga Domain, moved to Shirakawa-go and built this five-story Nagase Family House in 1890. In the year 2001, the thatched roof of the house was replaced with a new one, which became a huge local event, attracting visitors from all over Japan.

The inner part of Gasshozukuri houses varies from three to five floors, with the first floor being a Living Area with a floor stove, living room, and bathroom. Sericulture and saltpeter are the means by which the locals make their living, and the attic area above the second floor of the house is the most suitable Sericulture Place.

The roof is covered with thick thatch

Every now and then, the thatch on the roof of the Gasshozukuri houses gets replaced, which is a time-consuming and laborious process that requires the cooperation of hundreds of people. In 2001, the Nagase family’s house had its thatch replaced once every 80 years, the event was covered by NHK TV, and became a nationwide hit.

Manywhere Trivia:
The thatch on the roof should be replaced once every 50 to 80 years, and now it is refurbished and resurfaced after a decade or so, mostly due to the need for tourism development.