Shirakawa-gō Guide: Thatched Farmhouses, Viewpoint and Japanese to Use

Why Shirakawa-gō's thatched village is worth the journey

Shirakawa-gō is the name of the upper Shō River valley in Shirakawa Village, in the far north of Gifu Prefecture. Together with the Gokayama villages just over the border in Toyama, it was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 as the Historic Villages of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama. The reason is the farmhouses: large wooden houses with steep thatched roofs, built without nails, in a style called gasshō-zukuri.

The shape is a practical answer to the mountains. The valley receives some of the heaviest snow in Japan, and the steep roofs shed it before it can crush the frame. Under the thatch, several floors of attic space once held the silkworm trays that gave families an income in a place with little flat land for rice. Some of the houses still standing are well over two hundred years old.

What makes Shirakawa-gō different from an open-air museum is that Ogimachi is a working village. People live in most of the houses, the rice fields between them are still planted, and a thatched roof is replaced every few decades by neighbours working together, a tradition of mutual help called yui. For a Japanese learner it is also a lesson in reading: the signs are few, clear and full of useful words, and a night in a minshuku, a family-run inn, is one of the warmest chances you will get to speak Japanese at a dinner table.

Getting there: buses from Takayama, Kanazawa and Nagoya

There is no railway to Shirakawa-gō; everyone arrives by road. Highway buses stop at the Shirakawa-gō Bus Terminal, Shirakawa-gō basu tāminaru, at the edge of Ogimachi. From Takayama the ride takes about fifty minutes, and buses continue to Kanazawa, Toyama and Takaoka in the other direction, which makes the village an easy stop between the two cities. There is also a direct bus from Nagoya of roughly three hours.

The key word is yoyaku, reservation. According to the village, reservations are required on most of the bus routes, and busy days sell out, so book both directions before you travel. If you drive, you park at the village parking area at Seseragi Park across the river and walk over the Deai-bashi suspension bridge into the village. In winter, cars must have snow tyres or chains.

What you will see in Ogimachi

Ogimachi is small enough to walk end to end in about half an hour, and the main street runs north to south with the thatched houses on both sides and in the fields behind. A few of the largest houses are open as museums, where you can climb steep wooden stairs into the attic floors and see the rope-bound rafters and the tools once used for silk. Everything else you see from the lanes.

The classic view is from Shiroyama Tenbōdai, the viewpoint on the hill at the north end of the village, near the site of the old Ogimachi castle. The walking path takes around fifteen to twenty minutes and may close after heavy snow; a shuttle bus runs up from a stop near the Wada House. From the top, the houses stand in neat rows because almost all of them face the same way, set to the valley's winds and the sun on the roofs.

• Deai-bashi: the long suspension bridge over the Shō River between the parking area and the village.
• Wada-ke, the Wada House: the largest gasshō-zukuri house in Ogimachi, the home of a leading village family, and an Important Cultural Property. The family still lives in part of it.
• Kanda-ke, the Kanda House: a four-storey house where you can climb to the upper floors and see how the roof is built.
• Nagase-ke, the Nagase House: a large house of a family of doctors, with tools and household objects on display.
• Myōzen-ji: a temple with a thatched bell tower and a thatched living quarters, unusual for a Buddhist temple.
• Shirakawa Hachiman Jinja: the village shrine, home of the Doburoku Festival each October, named after the cloudy home-brewed sake offered to the gods.
• Gasshō-zukuri Minkaen: an open-air museum across the river, with gasshō-zukuri houses moved here from other villages in the area.
• Shiroyama Tenbōdai: the hilltop viewpoint over the whole village.

Words on the signs in Shirakawa-gō

Signs in Ogimachi do two jobs: they point you to the few places open to visitors, and they ask you to keep out of everywhere else. The name boards of the houses end in 家, read ke when it follows a family name, so 和田家 is the Wada family's house. The notices on gardens and paths use a small set of words that are worth recognising at a glance.

The most important are 私有地, private land, and 立入禁止, no entry. You will see them on driveways, gardens and the edges of rice fields, often with a polite English line underneath. They are not decoration: the land really is someone's front garden.

Japanese for the farmhouse museums and a minshuku night

At the farmhouse museums you pay a small fee at the entrance, take off your shoes and climb inside. The staff are often family members, and they are used to simple questions about photos, shoes and how the house was built. A few polite sentences also help at the minshuku, where dinner is usually served at a set time and the hosts may talk you through the local dishes.

Two dishes you are likely to meet are hōba miso, miso with vegetables grilled on a large dried magnolia leaf, and Hida beef, from the region around Takayama. In farmhouse inns, dinner is sometimes eaten around or near an irori, the sunken hearth. If you want to talk about the house itself, the word for the thatch is kaya, and the attic floors are simply ni-kai and san-gai, the second and third floors.

Manners, seasons and practical tips

Shirakawa-gō receives far more visitors than residents, and the village asks people to remember that it is a place where families live. Most of the good manners here are simply those of a guest in someone's neighbourhood.

• Do not walk into gardens, driveways or rice fields to get a better photo, even if there is no gate. Look for a sign saying a house is open before you go in.
• Keep your voice down, especially early in the morning and in the evening, when day visitors have gone and residents are at home.
• Do not smoke outside the designated areas. Thatched roofs burn easily, and fire is the village's greatest fear.
• Take your rubbish with you; there are few bins in the village.
• In winter the lanes are packed snow and ice. Wear boots with a good grip and expect to walk slowly.
• Come early or stay the night. The lanes are busiest in the middle of the day, when the tour buses are in.
• Book minshuku rooms well ahead, as there are only a limited number of farmhouse inns and many visitors want the same nights.

Practise the visit before you go

The question you are most likely to ask in Ogimachi is how to get up to the viewpoint. The answer usually comes with two options, walk or bus, and a landmark to find the stop. Practise the four lines below until you can say them without reading, and listen for the time, nijippun, twenty minutes, and the landmark in the reply.

Then practise with a partner who answers back. In Unihongo, choose the Sightseeing topic and ask your AI Sensei to play a local in the village, or choose Directions to practise asking the way to the bus terminal and the bridge. A few minutes of speaking before you go means you can ask the question, and understand the answer, on the day.

Official information

Bus reservations, parking, the winter light-up dates and booking rules, and seasonal events are published by the village and its tourist association. Check both before you travel, especially if you plan to come in winter or on an autumn weekend.

• Shirakawa-gō Tourist Association (English)
• Shirakawa Village: how to get to Shirakawa-gō (English)