is an area within the city of Nanto in

Toyama Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Chūbu region of Honshu. Toyama Prefecture has a population of 1,044,588 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 4,247.61 km2 (1,640.01 sq mi). Toyama Prefecture borders Ishikawa Prefecture to the ...

, Japan. It has been inscribed on the

UNESCO The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...

World Heritage List A World Heritage Site is a landmark or area with legal protection by an international convention administered by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). World Heritage Sites are designated by UNESCO for ...

due to its traditional '' gasshō-zukuri'' houses, alongside nearby Shirakawa-gō in Gifu Prefecture. The survival of this traditional architectural style is attributed to the region's secluded location in the upper reaches of the Shōgawa river. This is also the reason that Gokayama's lifestyle and culture remained very traditional for many years after the majority of the country had modernized. Many of the houses surpass 300 years in age. The Gokayama region includes the former villages of

Taira The Taira was one of the four most important clans that dominated Japanese politics during the Heian, Kamakura and Muromachi Periods of Japanese history – the others being the Fujiwara, the Tachibana, and the Minamoto. The clan is divided ...

, Kamitaira, and

Toga The toga (, ), a distinctive garment of ancient Rome, was a roughly semicircular cloth, between in length, draped over the shoulders and around the body. It was usually woven from white wool, and was worn over a tunic. In Roman historical tra ...

. The ''gasshō'' hamlet of Ainokura is located in Taira, while that of Suganuma is in Kamitaira; both are nationally designated Historic Sites.

Ainokura

, in the Gokayama region, was inscribed on the World Heritage List in December 1995 as one of the three villages of ''gassho''-style houses. Ainokura has 20 gassho-style houses known as ''

minka are vernacular houses constructed in any one of several traditional Japanese building styles. In the context of the four divisions of society, were the dwellings of farmers, artisans, and merchants (i.e., the three non-samurai castes). This c ...

''. Most of them are 100 to 200 years old, and the oldest is said to have been built some 400 years ago. The ''gassho'' roof has a slope of about 60 degrees forming a nearly equilateral triangle. This steep pitch allows snow to slide off the roof easily. The enormous roof is supported by stout oak beams called ''chonabari'', which are curved at the base. The roofs are rethatched every 15 to 20 years. Nowadays this is done by Gokayama Forest Owners' Cooperative.

Fumihito, Prince Akishino is the younger brother and heir presumptive of Emperor Naruhito of Japan and the younger son of Emperor emeritus Akihito and Empress emerita Michiko. Since his marriage in June 1990, he has had the title and has headed his own branch of the im ...

stayed at an Ainokura inn two times. The first time was when he was a second-year student at the

Gakushūin The or Peers School (Gakushūin School Corporation), initially known as Gakushūjo, is a Japanese educational institution in Tokyo, originally established to educate the children of Japan's nobility. Nussbaum, Louis-Frédéric. (2002)"Gakushū- ...

high-school when he took part in a summer geography training seminar. While staying in Ainkoura, he said, "I like three places in the world most, one of them is Gokayama". The second time was nine years after that with his wife.

Suganuma

is surrounded on three sides by the Shōgawa River. There are currently 12 houses in the village, nine of which are ''gassho-zukuri'' style houses. Two were built in the late Edo period (early to mid-19th century), six were built in the Meiji period, and the newest one was built in 1925. During the Edo period, the economy of Gokayama was based on

Japanese paper is traditional Japanese paper. The term is used to describe paper that uses local fiber, processed by hand and made in the traditional manner. ''Washi'' is made using fibers from the inner bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub ('' ...

sericulture Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, '' Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively stud ...

, and the production of

saltpeter Potassium nitrate is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . This alkali metal nitrate Salt (chemistry), salt is also known as Indian saltpetre (large deposits of which were historically mined in India). It is an ionic salt of potassium ...

, which is the raw material for gunpowder. The inhabitants of Suganuma hamlet also practiced rice cultivation using a small amount of land and

slash-and-burn Slash-and-burn agriculture is a farming method that involves the cutting and burning of plants in a forest or woodland to create a field called a swidden. The method begins by cutting down the trees and woody plants in an area. The downed veget ...

agriculture.

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Gokayama is twinned with: *

Alberobello Alberobello (; literally "beautiful tree"; Barese: ) is a small town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Bari, Apulia, southern Italy. It has 10,735 inhabitants and is famous for its unique '' trullo'' buildings. The ''trulli'' of Alberob ...

, Italy

References

External links