Shirakawa Township refers to the Shogawa River Basin in Gifu Prefecture. In contrast to the villages of Shirakawa and the former Village of Shogawa in Ono County, most of them today refer only to Shirakawa Village.
The Hagicho area of Shirakawa-go is famous for its Aikimachi-zaku. Villages with unique landscapes, such as Shirakawa-go and Mt. Goho, were registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites in December 1995 under the name of "Shirakawa-go and Goho-san's Combined Palm-made Settlement".
The Ayapakaya in the township is a World Heritage Site. Because the shape of the house is very sharp, like a closed hand, it got its name. Every autumn in Shirakawa Township, there is a turbid sake festival to celebrate the harvest of the year, and it is also an important festival in the township.
Shirakawa Township is located in the foothills of Mount Shirayama in the northwest of Gifu Prefecture, and is a quiet mountain village surrounded by mountains, paddy fields, and rivers flowing through it. There are "palm-made" (thatched herringbone wooden roofs) style houses, more than 110 connected together, under the blue sky and white clouds of Shirakawa Township, like a paradise.
"Aiki-kō-kō", which refers to the merging of two building materials into a fork-handed triangle shape and the use of straw reeds to lay the roof, is also known in the Shirakawa area as the "Aiki-hee-cho-choi building", which is characterized by the fact that the roof on both sides resembles an open book, forming a triangular shape, which was also developed in response to the snowy natural conditions in the Shirakawa area.
In addition, most of the houses face the north-south direction, and the reason is that the wind direction of the Shirakawa River is taken into account, the wind force is reduced, and the amount of sunshine is adjusted, so that the weather can be warm in winter and cool in summer."
The name of the village comes from its architectural style, the herringbone roof is like two hands together, so the house is called "Aiki-made", and the village is called "Aiki village".
Japan's "Ayato Village of Shirakawago and Mt. Goho" was designated as a World Heritage Site, which is the sixth place in Japan to be designated as a World Heritage Site after Himeji Castle and Shirakami Mountain, and represents an international recognition of Japan's long-standing commitment to the protection of natural and cultural landscapes and the joint protection of these world heritage sites with Japan.
It attracts tens of thousands of travelers from all over the world every year.
Shirakawa-go, Japan's beautiful fairy tale village