World Cultural Heritage of Japan | Shirakawa-go Gassho-zukuri (1537)

|Shirakawa-go Gassho-zukuri (1537). Shirakawa-go Gassho Village is a traditional Japanese rural building that combines two building materials into a crossed triangle shape and uses straw and reeds to cover the roof. The thatched houses are tall and narrow, with steeply pitched roofs to prevent them from collapsing under heavy snow in winter. This was invented by local villagers to cope with heavy snow. It was first built between the Edo and Showa periods. Each house is a masterpiece of carpentry, with no nails at all, and the beam slots fit tightly together, forming a whole. There are not many Gassho-zukuri settlements like this one left in Japan. It is now a world cultural heritage.