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Gassho-style houses in Shirakawa-Go, Japan - Table of Contents
INTERIORS - Gassho-style (thatch roof) houses in Shirakawa-Go, Japan
UNESCO's World Heritage Site since 1995.
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Interior Gassho-style Houses
Gassho-style houses are large, with three to four stories encompassed between the low eaves, and historically intended to house large extended families and a highly efficient space for a variety of industries. The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms up in the attic where the heat from the first floor, filled with people and activity, rises up. These aren't typical Japanese farmhouses, but colossal 3 to 5-storey buildings with gigantic cedar pillars and beams held together with only hand-woven ropes, and covered with the signature 3-feet thick thatched roof. The openings in the large gable ends for natural lighting and ventilation of the attic space add uniqueness to the building's appearance. |
| 2013 photos House interior  Tatami mats: straw foundation, covered with a woven reed mat; roughly 1 X 2 meters. Tatami are the basis of traditional Japanese architecture, regulating a building's size and dimensions. They originated in ancient Japan when straw was laid on bare earth as a softener and warmer. In the Heian Period (794–1185), this idea developed into moveable mats that could be laid anywhere in the house to sit or sleep on before becoming a permanent floor covering in the fifteenth century. Tatami are suitable for the Japanese climate because they let air circulate around the floor \   Fire pit for cooking  "Irori are a type of traditional sunken hearth common in Japan. Used for heating the home and cooking food, irori are essentially square pits in the floor with a pot hook. These hooks generally were hollow bamboo tubes containing an iron rod, with an attached lever, often shaped like a fish, that would allow the pot or kettle to be raised or lowered." - Wikipedia (online October 2014)  Tokonoma: an alcove for the display of a flower arrangement and a few carefully chosen objects of art.    Attic. The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms up in the attic where the heat from the first floor, filled with people and activity, rises up.  Attic |
Hall interior A group of tourists.   Dragon  Ceilings customarily are not separate built elements, but rather the underside of the roof is left exposed and acts as the ceiling for the space. Details below:      3 chrysanthemums  3 chrysanthemums. Chrysanthemum become the Imperial Family Emblem.    Cedar - the favorite Japanese work for building construction  Cedar - the favorite Japanese wood for building construction   Tatami mats: straw foundation, covered with a woven reed mat; roughly 1 X 2 meters. Tatami are the basis of traditional Japanese architecture, regulating a building's size and dimensions. They originated in ancient Japan when straw was laid on bare earth as a softener and warmer. In the Heian Period (794–1185), this idea developed into moveable mats that could be laid anywhere in the house to sit or sleep on before becoming a permanent floor covering in the fifteenth century. Tatami are suitable for the Japanese climate because they let air circulate around the floor |
