Winter’s Night, Ogimachi Gassho Village, Japan

In the three villages of Ogimachi in Gifu Prefecture, Ainokura and Suganuma in Toyama Prefecture, there remain groups of historical farmhouses with unique architectural character, the "Gassho-style" houses. The three villages, all of which are farm villages located in a steep mountainous area, retain much of the historic character of the village landscape as well as the surrounding natural environment. In terms of architectural history, the Gassho-style house is one of the most important farmhouse types in Japan, due to its rarity and uniqueness, as well as the fact that the surviving examples are clustered together in entire villages. The Gassho-style houses were built between the 17th century and the beginning of the 20th century. There used to be some 1,800 Gassho-style houses in 93 villages, but now just 150 remain, more than half of which are in the above three villages.  

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