The Japanese villages where time stood still
Up to 200 villagers cooperate to thatch a roof in a single day, preserving this beautiful tradition

Thatched roofs were once a common sight in the Japanese countryside, but they started to disappear in the 1950s, when people began migrating en masse to the cities. You can still see them in places, however – and nowhere more spectacularly than Gokayama and Shirakawa- go, said Tom Allan in the Financial Times.
Set in wooded valleys 250 miles northwest of Tokyo, these hamlets share about 120 traditional wooden houses, each crowned with an "exceptionally tall, imposing" thatched roof. As a result, Japan's 5,000-year-old thatching tradition flourishes here, nurtured by the Japan Cultural Thatching Association, which runs occasional public workshops. The grandeur of the buildings reflects the historic wealth of these villages, where two rare goods vital to the upper class – silk and nitre (for use in gunpowder) – were produced for centuries. But their form evolved in "conversation" with their surroundings.
The steep pitch of the roofs is designed to help shed the three metres of snow that falls in the area each winter. To minimise the risk of storm damage, the houses are orientated so that a gable end "faces the prevailing weather". And the materials they are built from – cedar, grass, rice straw and Japanese witch hazel – are cut within walking distance. Indeed, a trip up the hill to cut grass by hand using sickles is the first stage of any thatching workshop. The roofs need re-thatching every 30 to 40 years, a "constant cycle" of renewal of a kind that is reflected in the Shinto idea of tokowaka, or "everlasting youth".
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
And in Shirakawa-go, the old communal system of yui – in which up to 200 villagers cooperate to thatch a roof in a single day – lives on. (Even so, the work is overseen by professional thatchers such as Nishio Haruo, whose Instagram account, @japanesethatchingguy, is worth a look.)
For further information, and to rent a room in one of the houses, see gokayama-info.jp, vill.shirakawa.lg.jp, and kayabun.or.jp. Tom Allan is the author of On the Roof: A Thatcher's Journey, recently published by Profile Books at £18.99.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 cartoons about the TACO trade
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on America's tariffs, Vladimir Putin waiting for taco Tuesday, and a new presidential seal
-
A city of culture in the high Andes
The Week Recommends Cuenca is a must-visit for those keen to see the 'real Ecuador'
-
The Chagos Islands: Starmer's 'lousy deal'
Talking Point The PM's adherence to 'legalism' has given Mauritius a 'gift from British taxpayers'
-
A city of culture in the high Andes
The Week Recommends Cuenca is a must-visit for those keen to see the 'real Ecuador'
-
Green goddess salad recipe
The Week Recommends Avocado can be the creamy star of the show in this fresh, sharp salad
-
Fast-and-furious zombies, serial killer sharks and a matchmaking conundrum in June's new movies
the week recommends Danny Boyle is back with '28 Years Later' and Dakota Johnson has a Sophie's choice to make in 'Materialists'
-
Ancient India: living traditions – 'ethereal and sensual' exhibition
The Week Recommends Hinduism, Jainism and Buddhism are explored in show that remains 'remarkably compact'
-
6 well-preserved homes built in the 1930s
Feature Featuring a restored 1934 colonial in Arizona and a cold-storage warehouse turned loft in New York City
-
Things in Nature Merely Grow: memoir of 'harsh beauty' after loss
The Week Recommends Chinese-American novelist Yiyun Li's 'devastating' memoir explores the deaths of her two sons
-
Sirens: entertaining satire on the lives of the ultra-wealthy stars Julianne Moore
The Week Recommends This 'blackly comic affair' unfurls at a 'breakneck speed'
-
Mrs Warren's Profession: 'tour-de-force' from Imelda Staunton and daughter Bessie Carter
The Week Recommends Mother-daughter duo bring new life to George Bernard Shaw's morality play