Introducing the Gassho-style houses of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama | Special tours of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama

Recommended Sightseeing Spots

Club Tourism to go for tours and trips to the World Heritage sites of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama! We introduce recommended day trips and Accommodation tours to the World Heritage sites of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama, famous for their Gassho-style houses. We also have tours to enjoy sightseeing around Shirakawa-go and hot springs! If you choose a tour with a tour guide, you can trust us with support during your trip. Searching and booking tours is easy.

What is Shirakawa-go?
Highly recommended! Recommended spots Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go is...

Shirakawa-go is a place name that has existed since before Edo period, and the place called Shirakawa-go today refers to Ogimachi in Shirakawa Village, Gifu Prefecture.
It is registered as a World Heritage Site, and in 1995, the villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama, including Suganuma and Ainokura, were collectively registered as "Historic Villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama".

Requests when walking around

Gassho-style buildings are vulnerable to fire, so smoking is strictly prohibited.
All land within the village is privately owned, so please do not enter houses or gardens.
There are no trash cans in the village, so please help us by taking your trash home with you.

If you visit Shirakawa-go go, be sure to come here!

Highly recommended! Recommended spots Shirakawa-go

Open-air Museum Gassho-style Folk House Garden

Photo courtesy of Anno Etsuji

There are 25 Gassho-style buildings, 9 of which are designated as important cultural properties by Gifu Prefecture. In addition to the main house used as a residence, various other buildings are open for visitors, such as a wooden granary for storing grains, a drying shed for harvested rice and other grains, and buildings associated with shrines and temples. You can even see the attics of the Gassho-style buildings.

Wada family (nationally designated important cultural property)

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This is a typical Gassho-style house in Ogimachi Gassho Village. It was built in the mid to late Edo period and is still in use today, 400 years after it was built. The garden, hedges, surrounding fields, and waterways have all been well preserved.

Ogimachi Castle Ruins (observation deck)

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Shirakawa Township Ogimachi is the best place to take pictures of the entire Gassho Village! This is a view often seen in brochures. From the parking lot at Seseragi Park, it is about a 30-40 minute walk each way. There is also a shuttle bus service from the parking lot to the observation deck (for a fee).

Myozenji Temple

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Myozenji is a Sanomune temple founded about 260 years ago. A major feature of the temple is that main hall, bell tower gate, and kitchen are all thatched, and it is said that thatched roof temples are rare nationwide.

The Kanda family

The Kanda family began when Wada Yaemon, the second son of the Wada family, branched off and settled in this area. The four-story gassho-style building has a first-floor hearth where you can listen to explanations about the Kanda family while drinking tea at the hearth. The second floor is a permanent exhibition hall where you can see sake brewing and daily utensils. The third floor is a folk tool exhibition hall where sericulture tools are on display, and the fourth floor is the top floor with an observation space.

Hometown Nagase Family

The five-story Gassho-style house retains medical equipment from the Edo period.

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30 minutes by bus from Shirakawa-go

Gokayama Gassho Village: A home to Gassho-style houses and folk songs

In 1995, Gokayama Gassho Village was registered as a World Heritage site at the same time as Shirakawa-go Ogimachi Gassho Village in Gifu Prefecture, but it gives a quieter impression than the bustling Shirakawa-go Gassho Village. Suganuma Gassho Village and Ainokura Gassho Village together are called Gokayama Gassho Village.
Gokayama The villages are called "unexplored regions" because of the steep mountainous terrain of the region, and they offer quiet and nostalgic scenery of the past, centering on traditional gassho-zukuri architecture.

The main difference between the two villages and Shirakawa-go is the slope of the roofs. The gassho-zukuri of Suganuma and Aikura villages have slightly steeper slopes than those of Shirakawa-go ・Ogimachi Gassho-zukuri.
This is because snow in Suganuma and Aikura Gokayama is heavier and contains more moisture, whereas snow in Shirakawa-go is lighter, even in the same heavy snowfall area.

Image of Gokayama Gassho Village, a World Heritage Site

Image of Ainokura village in Gokayama in winter

Gokayama is also known as a "treasure trove of folk songs," and there are many folk songs that are still sung to this day, although it is unclear when or who first sang them, where they came from, and how they spread. Gokayama 's folk songs are a cultural heritage that have been passed down orally and have developed along with the local climate.
The most well-known songs, "Kokiriko Bushi" and "Mugiya Bushi," have been designated as intangible cultural properties and have been preserved through continued singing and dancing, living on in Gokayama through the ages.

If you visit Gokayama, be sure to come here!

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If you visit Gokayama, we recommend visiting the Murakami Family Home in the Kaminashi district.
The Murakami family home is an old house with a history of about 400 years that is registered as a national important cultural property. The stories the owner tells us about life in Gokayama and its ethnic culture are very interesting.
Be sure to try the herbal tea served by the hearth.

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What's inside a Gassho-style building?
Shirakawa-go attracts attention as a "heritage for all mankind"

What's inside a Gassho-style building?

Everyone is curious about what's inside a Gassho-style house. It must be different from the houses we live in!
What is on the top of a triangular roof? We will explain in detail.
Gassho-zukuri houses were much larger than ordinary houses, and were huge 3-5 story buildings with 30-40 people living in large families.

Shirakawa-go attracts attention as a "heritage for all mankind"

Attraction number one: a Gassho-style house with factory functions

This village flourished at the end of the Edo period. It is said that there were nearly 1,800 gassho houses, and tens of thousands of people are thought to have lived in the Shirakawa-go village. In this deep mountain area, what supported their lives was "sericulture" and "smoke gunpowder production." "Sericulture" was the source of cash income, and the sericulture industry began around the beginning of the 16th century, and production increased until the 1890s. "Smoke gunpowder" is artificial saltpeter, which is the raw material for gunpowder. The people of this region were skilled in the technique of processing silkworm feces to make high-quality saltpeter. Silkworms were raised in the attic using the heat from the hearth. Workshops for spinning thread and other tasks were set up on the second and third floors, and huge holes were dug under the floor to produce saltpeter. The large space of the gassho-style houses functioned as a place of living as well as a factory.

Attraction number two: connections between people

In Shirakawa-go go, a system called "yui" still remains. "Yui" refers to the labor practice of mutual help between households, and in particular, "yui" in Shirakawa-go go refers to the "social system of lending and borrowing labor to re-thatch the roofs of gassho-style houses." Gassho-style roofs need to be re-thatched once every 30 to 40 years. A total of 400 people are needed for one re-thatching job. The roofs are huge and have a steep slope, so it takes a lot of labor. In addition, since people live in the houses, it needs to be completed in a short period of time so as not to interfere with their lives. Therefore, the entire roof of a gassho-style house is completed in just two days through this cooperative work of villagers called "yui." In Shirakawa-go go, "yui" not only means "a social system of mutual help," but also has a strong feeling of "the importance of ties between people."