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Suganuma Gassho Style Village

Picturesque World Heritage Village

The Suganuma Gassho Style Village, located on the south bank of the Shokawa River in Gokayama, is a World Heritage Site. Two of nine Edo to Showa Gassho-zukuri houses have been converted into the Gokayama Folk Museum and the Niter Museum, which showcases the techniques of saltpeter production.

The Gassho-zukuri 合掌造り is a unique form of Japanese residential architecture, with a herringbone shaped thatched roof that dips up to 60 degrees and is built without a single nail, using only wooden mortise and tenon structures and ropes to hold it in place. This form of construction prevented the house from being crushed by heavy snowfall, so the only places in Japan where you can find a house like this are snow lands such as Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture and Shirakawa-go, Gifu Prefecture.

Manywhere Trivia:
Japan’s traditional architecture is also in decline. There were once 2,000 Gassho-zukuri buildings in Gokayama and Shirakawa-go, but only fewer than 200 left today.

The Shokawa River runs from north to east in the Gokayama area, and just around the corner of the river, on the southern bank, there is a flat area where Suganuma Gassho Style Village, one of the two Gassho-zukuri World Heritage Villages in Gokayama, is located.

Surrounded by Mountains, the picturesque Suganuma hamlet has 9 Gassho-zukuri Houses, most of which were built between the end of the Edo period and the Showa period, more than a hundred years ago. They are in harmony with the surrounding Shrine, watermill, farmland, and suspension bridge, creating a unique farming village ecology.

Two of the nine houses have been transformed into the Gokayama Folk Museum and the Niter Museum. Gokayama Folk Museum has the collection of over two hundred tools used by the local people, which reflects the lives of previous generations in Gokayama.

Suganuma Village - Gokayama Folk Museum

How Village life used to be

The Gokayama Folk Museum is a renovation of a large Gassho-zukuri house in the Suganuma Gassho Style Village. It is a collection of more than 200 tools and precious instruments used by the local people, which reflect the life of the village in the past.

Niter, or Saltpetre, was an important raw material for the production of gunpowder. The production of saltpeter and sericulture were the main sources of livelihood for the people of Gokayama. The Niter Museum, using figures, models, videos, and historical materials, gives visitors an insight into the process of making saltpeter in the early days.

Suganuma Village - Niter Museum

Important Gunpowder Ingredient

Niter, or Saltpeter, was an important raw material for the production of gunpowder, and for centuries the people of Gokayama made saltpeter as their main source of livelihood. The Niter Museum is housed in a Suganuma Gassho-zukuri house, and shows the production process of saltpeter with the exhibition of models, tools, and materials.