Shirakawa-mura / 白川村（Gifu）
About Shirakawa-mura
Located in northwestern Gifu Prefecture, Shirakawa Village is known for its beautiful gassho style houses and natural environment, and was registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995 along with Gokayama (Toyama Prefecture) as “Shirakawa-go and Gokayama Gassho-zukuri Villages.”
It is a place representing “the hometown of Japan” where one can get a true sense of the original Japanese rural culture, lifestyle, and life. Visitors can enjoy the scenery of the four seasons: cherry blossoms in spring, fresh green rice fields in summer, autumn leaves in fall, and snow in winter.
Shirakawa Village is located in the Hida region, where the Shogawa River flows between steep slopes, and the village is formed along the river. This region has one of the heaviest snowfalls in Japan, and while summers are cool and comfortable, winters are covered in a blanket of snow as deep as 170 cm in February.
Getting there and around
Access to Shirakawa Village
Highway bus
Approx. 2 hours and 35 min. from Nagoya Meitetsu Bus Center
50 min. from Takayama Station
Approx. 1 hour and 15 min. from Kanazawa Station
Approx. 1 hour and 20 min. from Toyama Station
Top Attractions
Shirakawa Village, nestled in the wilderness of Holy Mt. Shirakawa, offers hot springs and ski resorts that take advantage of nature's bounty, as well as walks and other activities that allow visitors to enjoy the seasonal scenery. The gassho style Minka-en (private house garden) offers a variety of hands-on activities that are unique to Gassho-no-Sato, such as traditional thatch dyeing, straw sandal making, and soba noodle making. At the Wada House, one of Shirakawa Village's representative thatched-roof gassho style houses, visitors can observe this unique architecture and see the wisdom and skills integral to people's daily lives through the display of artifacts and folk tools used in to create the gassho style.
Shirakawago／白川郷（Gifu）
Nagoya Travel Guide