Shirakawa-Go travel tips and stories. Vacations ideas, cruises spa and resorts

“Hida Folk Village” is an open air museum and site area is an approximately 99,000 sq. m. It exhibits about 30 typical farmhouses and buildings, including a few “gassho-zukuri” traditional Japanese homes built with steeply pitched thatched roofs, from the Hida region, the mountainous district of Gifu Prefecture around Takayama. About 30 old private houses with sloped- and thatched-roof houses which bore the heavy snowfall were reconstructed in the village. This village was created by moving old folk and farming homes from various villages and the nearby Shirakawa-Go region to one particular place.
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Located deep in the mountains of northern Gifu and Toyama prefectures, the Shirakawa-go and Gokayama districts were cut off from the rest of Japanese society because of their extremely isolated location in remote mountain valleys, and as such developed a very unique culture and lifestyle different from any other area of Japan.
The farmhouses were built 200 to 300 years ago to suit the environment in Shirakawa. The steep angle of the roof prevents excessive build-up of snow in the winter, while the direction of the structures aid in keeping the rooms cool in the summer and warm in the winter. The village, which was designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage site in 1995, is still an active community and many of the farmhouses operates as “Minshiku” or inns accepting guests.

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