Shirakawa-go Gassho-zukuri

About the Gassho-zukuri

Shirakawa-go is a UNESCO World Heritage site in Japan, renowned for its traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses with steep thatched roofs. These architectural marvels were designed to withstand heavy snowfall in the mountainous region, representing centuries of Japanese rural building techniques and the harmonious relationship between humans and nature in the Japanese Alps.

Steeply pitched thatched farmhouses, whose roof form is likened to hands joined in prayer, gave rise to the name gassho-zukuri. Built largely during the Edo and Meiji periods in the isolated Shogawa valley, the houses had large open attics used for silkworm raising and, earlier, saltpeter production, while their sharp roofs shed heavy snow. Ogimachi in Shirakawa-go preserves the largest surviving cluster, including the Wada family house, and re-thatching is still organized through the communal labor system known as yui. In December 1995 UNESCO inscribed the historic villages of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama as a World Heritage site, which confirmed the houses as the district's defining image and the basis of its tourism.