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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.

The Wada family was one of the wealthiest families in Shirakawa Village 白川郷 (Shirakawa-go), and from the 17th to the 19th century, the Wada family worked for the local government, on gunpowder and silkworms businesses.

Built in the Edo period (around 1830), the Wada Family House 和田家住宅 is located in the northern part of the Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go, and is The Largest Building of over a hundred gassho-zukuri buildings here.

The Wada Family House consists of a main house, a warehouse, a toilet, and a rice-rack hut, and is surrounded by Rice Fields and Water Channels as a rural farmhouse. The 27-meter-long main house sits on the east and faces west to reduce the intrusion of the north-south monsoon, with Steep Roof to relieve the pressure of snow. This unique architectural style is named Gassho-zukuri 合掌造り (Clasped-hands Style) because it resembles the hands folded in salute to Buddha.

60 degrees Steep Roof

The Wada Family House is still inhabited today and only part of the house is open for visitors. The ground floor of the house is the Main Living Space, with an entrance hall, bedrooms, guest rooms, bathrooms, and even a Buddhist niche. The open Second-story Area was originally used for sericulture, and there are now a number of sericulture and spinning tools on display.