Welcome to the Gasshozukuri Minkaen Open-Air Museum 野外博物館　合掌造り民家園へようこそ

The museum was established to preserve gasshō-style homes shortly after a hydroelectric dam was built on the Shō River, causing it to flood and wash away many historic structures. The museum’s creation was also a response to the rapid depopulation of villages such as Kazura (north of modern Shirakawa) in the 1960s, which left many traditional homes empty. As the years went on, the museum continued to acquire additional gasshō-style homes, as well as storehouses, barns, a shrine, a temple, and a watermill.

Nine structures at the museum are currently listed as Important Cultural Properties of Gifu Prefecture. They include the Former Yamashita Harurō House, which was built in the mid-1750s and is the museum’s oldest example of the gasshō style; the Former Higashi Shina House, a prototypical gasshō-style house thought to have been built in the late 1800s; the Former Nakano Yoshimori House, built in 1909 and noted for its large central support beam; and the Former Nakano Chōjirō House, another late-1800s home distinguished by the reddish-purple walls in its tatami-mat rooms, which are painted with a traditional pigment called bengara.

The museum’s structures have been closely grouped for convenient access, but their arrangement was designed to feel like a traditional village. The grounds are planted with many of the shrubs and trees used historically in Shirakawa-gō, such as Japanese witch hazel and horse chestnut. Other wild plants include bamboo lily and Japanese hyacinth.

The museum also has a soba restaurant and a rest area that sells snacks—such as mochi (glutinous rice cakes) made with mugwort, Japanese horse chestnut, or millet—as well as souvenirs crafted by town residents. There are also opportunities to join hands-on workshops on making soba noodles or weaving the straw sandals (ashinaka) that were traditionally worn in Shirakawa-gō.