Shirakawa-go - Japan

All of these cards are from the lovely Shirakawa-go village. Shirakawa-go together with Gokayama in Toyama, was registred as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. 

Back in 2009 Adriana sent me my 1st card from there and that was when I fell in love with this place.

 Located in a mountainous region that was cut off from the rest of the world for a long period of time, these villages with their Gassho-style houses subsisted on the cultivation of mulberry trees and the rearing of silkworms. 

 

JP-1792846, sent by Misa.

The large houses with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are the only examples of their kind in Japan. Despite economic upheavals, the villages of Ogimachi, Ainokura and Suganuma are outstanding examples of a traditional way of life perfectly adapted to the environment and people's social and economic circumstances. - in: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/734

© Hiroyuki Yamaguchi

JP-329605, sent by Momoko. 

The village is located in the Shogawa river valley stretching across the border of Gifu and Toyama Prefectures in central Japan. Both villages, Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama, are famous for their traditional gassho-zukuri farmhouses, some of which are more than 250 years old. 

Gassho-zukuri means "constructed like hands in prayer", as the farmhouses' steep thatched roofs resemble the hands of Buddhist monks pressed together in prayer. 

 

JP-2133180, sent by Miho.

The architectural style developed over many generations and is designed to withstand the large amounts of heavy snow that falls in the region during winter. The roofs, made without nails, provided a large attic space used for cultivating silkworms. - in: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e5950.html