We breakfasted at Onyado Yuinoshi, another larger-than-life meal, but this one was served in a different area of the dining room, where we could enjoy the view of the mountains and the river.
We had a brief snafu at check-out. When we checked in, we were asked to remove and store our shoes in a locker, for which we were given a key, but which we could not now find. This was a trip-threatening event, as each of us had brought only one pair of shoes. No shoes; no trip. The woman at the desk had, of course, a master key, and after a mortifying bit of trial and error, including paying for the lost key, we eventually located our locker and our shoes.
Embarrassed but shod, we boarded the shuttle bus in front of the hotel for a trip to a World-Heritage-listed gassho-zukuri village in Shirakawa-go. Upon arrival, we stored our carry-on bags at the Nohi Bus terminal and walked into the village.
Ogimachi, Shirakawa-go
From Lonely Planet Guide to Japan:
The Unesco World Heritage-listed villages Shirakawa-go and Gokayama are two excellent reasons to visit the Hida region. Just over an hour’s drive from Takayama, both villages are famous for their beautifully preserved wooden farmhouses (many dating back 300 years). The steep, gabled thatched-roof designs gave them the name ‘gassho-zukuri’ likening them to hands pressed in prayer. The design provides a spacious attic for cultivating silkworms; it can also withstand heavy snowfalls.
- Gassho-zukuri Minka-en Outdoor Museum
The gassho-zukuri village we visited is an outdoor museum called Gassho-zukuri Minka-en in Ogimachi, a district of Shirakawa-go. The museum’s official site tells how the open-air museum was created, its configuration, and how it is reached. For those interested in knowing more, the site also describes in some detail the construction methods and historical uses of four of the 25 houses that have been relocated to the outdoor museum.
In 1968, the residents of the Kazura district were looking to sell and relocate some gassho style houses outside of their village. The opportunity to acquire unwanted gassho style houses led to their being relocated and reconstructed here, where they now serve as an open-air museum. The old-fashioned lifestyle led in this type of housing is reproduced for visitors.
Most visitors who come to the historic village of Ogimachi by car arrive on the western side of the Sho River [photo below], where they are asked to park their vehicles before crossing the river and proceeding toward the center of the village on foot.
By the large parking lot stands Deai
no Yakata, a tourist information center decorated to look like a traditional
gassho-style house with a thatched roof. The nearby gift shops sell souvenirs
and edible specialties from throughout the Shirakawa area. Behind these
buildings is the open-air Gasshozukuri Minkaen Outdoor Museum, which consists
of 25 structures, including several gassho-style farmhouses, storehouses, and
sheds moved to the site to be preserved and displayed.
The … Deai Bridge [photo below], a 107-meter pedestrian suspension bridge across the Sho River was built in 1993. Serving as one of the entrances to the village, the bridge is relatively narrow and unpainted, as it was designed to blend in with its surroundings. The structure’s understated style and its role in protecting the traditional townscape by keeping the streets free of cars were noted by the Japan Society of Civil Engineers, which awarded the Deai Bridge a design prize in 2003.
The background story to the relocation of these houses from Kasura is a kind of epitaph for a way of life that became unsustainable. First, there was the construction of a dam in the 1950s, which threatened to submerge the village. Then sericulture (silkworm cultivation) became uneconomical, which made the attics of the houses superfluous and a second source of income disappear. Finally, young people moved away from the village in search of better economic opportunity. This stone monument memorializes the spirit of the village that once was and which lives on only as an outdoor museum.
BASIC CONCEPT
To live in the steep mountains is to live in paradise on earth. Even when the lamplight grows dim, we talk fondly of the unending good old times. The young men don't leave the village, but stay on and support the tribe’s elderly. When we build roads, we do not sell the trees for lumber. The old trees grow thick on the mountain, enriching our hearts, even if we have no other wealth. To clear the land and till the soil and support oneself is to obey the laws of nature.
He who sells his forebears' estate loses his native place and brings ruin upon himself. Let him who would hear the song of the birds in the mountains endeavor with all his strength to grow fruit trees there. He shall pass his days in joy gazing at the stars. Happy days still come to the lonely woods in the steep mountains. The light of peace glows on in the eyes of the houses and cattle.
Very poignant. The young men did not stay to grow fruit trees and look up at the stars where they once cultivated silkworms and raised cattle. They left. But they did not sell and they did not walk away from their history. They found a way to save the houses and historic memory, even if they could not save their way of life.
On our walk through the outdoor museum, of particular interest was the rice drying building,
whose interior displays agricultural tools, period photographs, and summer sandals and winter boots made of rice straw.
The interior of the rice drying building encloses a shrine behind shoji (sliding paper doors).
The gassho-zukuri houses are roofed in thatch made of silver grass or plume grass, harvested in late October or November.
The thatch is sometimes three feet thick and the roof is designed to last 30-40 years.
The smoke from the internal irori (open hearth) coats the underside of the thatch ceiling, preventing mold, insects, and rot.
To be in the village is to enter another time and place.
The water mill below ground rice into flour.
In this gassho-zukuri you can have tea and visit the second floor and the attic.
Even though the 25 buildings, including the Shoromon Gate of the Myozenji Temple below, were relocated here, they all look as if they’ve always been here. There is not a single whiff of Walt Disney - or even Old Sturbridge Village - about this place.
It was beautiful in the Fall, but Gassho-zukuri Minka-en must be magical in the winter, as this photo from the Australian travel site Klook shows.
For more images of Gassho-zukuri Minka-en, as well as information on accommodations in the village, I recommend this tourist website.
Speaking of accommodations, we had to move on to our next. We collected our bags at the Nohi Bus Depot and bought tickets to our next destination, Kanazawa.
Kanazawa
- Musashi Sakaen
We were staying in a traditional Japanese house with wooden grille room dividers, tatami mat floors, shoji screens, and futon bedding, located within walking distance of the train station and downtown. The owner lives in one half of the house and rents out the other half. The two units feel completely independent and look out into a shared walled garden. We were very pleased with our choice.
Having settled in, we went out in search of dinner, passing this stationery and crafts supplies store along the way that was displaying origami creatures.
We ate at an izakaya in the well-known Omicho covered market, very close by. The market was closing down and there were only a few restaurants open. The izakaya we chose was a hole in the wall, and it looked rather unpromising on the outside. But inside was a completely different story: the place was packed, the conversations lively, and the waiters scurrying. The Japanese man at the table next to us overheard us speaking English and jumped right in. He told us he had lived for some years in Germany, working in sales for Gröhe, a high-end plumbing fixtures manufacturer. Being a salesman, he recommended we order the seafood and fall vegetable tempura you see in the next photos.
His recommendations did not disappoint. Everything was delicious!
Keep it real!
Marilyn
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