Shirakawa-go

This morning I went on a day trip to Shirakawa-go. This is about 50 minutes by bus from Takayama. This is a very small village up in the mountains. The houses here are a traditional gasho style. This is a traditional type of housing where the roof is made up of a type of hay. With modern technology there is not a need to maintain this type of housing. But people in this town do it to maintain tradition and also because Japan has identified this area and type of housing as a national treasure. Historically there were as many as 40 people that lived in one of these homes. All of the houses roofs face west and east because this way the roof hits the sun. The sun helps dry the roof which makes it stronger. Also most of the strong winds in this area move north to south so this prevents the roof from being damaged by the winds.

This area is a very beautiful small town. Since the homes do not have any chimneys the smoke would rise to the top of the homes. This smoke did two things: first it would dry out the hay for the roofs which made the hay stronger. Second, it would provide the perfect temperature for raising silkworms. Historically, farming would not raise enough money so people would also raise silkworms in their attics. Still to this day roofs must be changed annually. It takes about 3 days to change a roof and everyone in the town helps do it. I was able to get some pictures from another person who took the tour with me.