Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go is very popular among foreign tourists such as yourself because of the nostalgic and fairy-tale-like scenery that can be seen from season to season.

* Japanese people also love this place because it is a true “original landscape of Japan.”

In 1995, Shirakawa-go was registered as a World Heritage Site along with neighboring Gokayama.

It has also been awarded three stars in the “Michelin Green Guide,” the highest ranking for a tourist destination.

* In all of Japan there are only 16 places that have been selected as 3-star sites.

The area is highly rated because many gassho-style houses built 350 to 100 years ago still remain in good condition, and the landscape of the entire village has been preserved as it was in the past.

* Many of the houses are still in use today as accommodations, restaurants, and museums.

Gassho-zukuri—traditional style of Japanese architecture with a steep thatched roof—is an architectural style unique to this area, which is one of the snowiest regions in the world.

The thatched roofs are steeply sloped at a 60° angle, which is suitable for removing snow from the roofs.

The name “Gassho-zukuri” (literally, “joined palms”) is derived from the roof’s shape, which resembles a pair of clasped palms.

In the past, sericulture was conducted in the airy and spacious attic, and saltpeter, a raw material for gunpowder, was manufactured under the floor.　

Brief History

It was discovered from excavated stone tools and earthenware that the area was inhabited from 6,000 to 7,000 years ago.

However, because the area was isolated from the surrounding area and deep in the mountains with heavy snowfall, there were no written records of events that occurred here until the middle of the 13th century.

The Pure Land sect of Buddhims Jodo Shinshu sect spread from the middle of the 13th century, but warfare followed, and the area became the domain of two feudal lords, the Uchigashima clan from 1460 and the Kanamori clan from 1585.

Then, in the Edo period (1603-1868), sericulture and the production of saltpeter, a raw material for gunpowder, flourished in the gassho-style houses.

During the Meiji period (1868-1912), when Japan opened its borders to the outside world, cheap glass from overseas began to flow into Shirakawa-go, and the salt glass industry in Shirakawa-go was destroyed.

Sericulture and other industries also declined in the 20th century, resulting in a continuous outflow of population from Shirakawa-go to urban areas.

At the end of World War II, there were approximately 300 gassho-zukuri houses in Shirakawa-go, but the construction of the large Miboro Dam caused many of them to sink to the bottom of the lake, and the number of unoccupied houses was reduced to almost half in a short period of time due to the ongoing depopulation and the sale and relocation of vacant houses to urban areas.
As a result of activities by people who felt threatened by this situation, Shirakawa-go was selected as an important building preservation district, and combined with the improvement of transportation networks such as roads and railroads, it has since become a popular tourist destination.

In 1995, when Shirakawa-go was registered as a World Heritage site, the village was further highlighted as a tourist destination and now, “tourism pollution” is now a problem.

Nearby Excursions

Incidentally, nearby (about 30 minutes by car) is Gokayama, another World Heritage Site with its gassho-zukuri architecture.

Kanazawa and Takayama are also relatively close, only an hour’s drive away, so it would be a time saver to visit these places at the same time.