Thatched farmhouses line the main street of the village of Ouchijuku in the Tohoku region, a few hours north of Tokyo. (Photo by Fluffy_nns, public domain.)
Farming villages were part of the landscape appreciated by poets and artists of old Japan. The romance of the road, however, was not for the hapless farmers, who under the authoritarian edicts of the Tokugawa shogunate (1601-1857) were not normally allowed to leave their farms and villages. This oppressive law helped preserve Japan's many distinct provincial subcultures. One of the special pleasures of traveling in the remoter parts of Japan is that each few hours of travel will reveal new crafts, a different, delicious regional cuisine and, among the elderly, a yet more incomprehensible dialect.
Among the most charming regional deviations is in the style of the minka, or farmhouse. (The term minka, "houses of the people," includes merchant houses, but is typically used to refer to farmhouses.) The simplest style of farmhouse was separated into the dirt-floor doma area and a raised area, much as in a merchant's shop, except that the raised area normally contained an irori, a square, open hearth. Farm families spent most daylight hours working outdoors, so there was less need in their homes for the many rooms and partitions of samurai and merchant houses. The raised area served for eating, sleeping and "night work," such as fashioning sacks and rope out of rice straw. The irori provided heat, light and a place to cook. Suspended above it might be a wooden fish, which served not only as part of the pot-suspension system, but also as a charm against fire (the fish being associated with water). Seating around the irori was strictly fixed according to family hierarchy. The master of the house sat on the side farthest from the doma. His wife sat to his left, while guests sat to his right. Farmhands, children, and daughters-in-law sat nearest the doma.
Because of differences in climate and occupation, an amazing number of regional styles developed from this basic model. In the TŌNO area of Tōhoku, raising horses was such an important income supplement for farming families that the beasts were treated and cared for almost as if they were members of the family. These farmers built L-shaped minka called magariya, or "bent houses," which housed horses in one wing and humans in the other; this way, the farmers could keep an eye on the animals and also have added protection from cold winds.
Many minka types developed in response to the increase in silk raising that occurred when silk became a major export item during the Meiji period. Because worms and cocoons require warmth and varying amounts of light, multistoried minka were built with spacious, windowed upper floors. The kabuto-zukuri, or "helmet-style," minka has a voluminous roof that allows light and air into the upper floors.
The minka of TAMUGIMATA, in the Dewa Sanzan area, were a variant of this style that included an extra gable. In winter, when the snow was piled deep, these minka could be entered through the second-floor gable; the multiple-floor arrangement also conserved heat.
The huge gasshō-style houses of SHIRAKAWA-GŌ and GOKAYAMA were originally reserved for the families of priests and village headmen, but other households built them when they started to raise silkworms. The devout villagers, members of the Jōdo Shin sect, named these three- to four-story A-frame houses “hands clasped in prayer.”
Other distinctive styles include the honmune style around Matsumoto, the Yamato style around Nara and the kudo style, a complex form said to resemble an oven, found in Saga prefecture. The NIHON MINKA-EN (Japan Farmhouse Museum) outside Tokyo and many other fine minka museums, enable the visitor to compare regional styles.
CHIRAN, south of Kagoshima, was a particularly unusual farming village because its inhabitants were samurai. Surrounding the village are the tea fields these gentlemen farmers tended. Although the Tokugawa shogunate forbade samurai from farming, Kagoshima's Satsuma clan was distant and powerful enough to flout Edo's strictures.
The fine, clipped-hedge gardens of Chiran's samurai houses offer the sightseer a charming juxtaposition of the rustic and the refined. The stone walls of Chiran are thought to show the influence of the expert masons of Okinawa, which Satsuma held as a quasi-colony.
In Okinawa, the island of TAKETOMI, on roughly the same latitude as Taipei, is the best place to see the distinctive coral walls enclosing the pretty courtyards and houses with red-tile roofs surmounted by guardian lions.
Japan’s Best-Preserved Villages
* TŌNO (Tōhoku: East from Morioka). This scattered rural area features L-shaped minka, called magariya. The region is famed for legends concerning kappa, changelings and other supernatural creatures.
** DEWA SANZAN (Tōhoku: West from Sendai). Three sacred mountains, forming one of the holiest yamabushi (warrior monk mountain men) centers. TŌGE and TAMUGIMATA are monzenmachi (pilgrimage towns) with a strongly rural flavor. They preserve a number of thatched-roof pilgrim's lodges.”
* Ōuchijuku (Tōhoku: West from Koriyama). This remote post town preserves rows of thatched farmhouse-inns.
* JAPAN FARMHOUSE MUSEUM (Kantō: Odakyū Line). Farmhouses from various parts of Japan.
*** SHIRAKAWA-GŌ (Chūbu: Northwest from Nagoya). Isolated farm hamlet famous for its multi-storied gasshō-zukuri houses, many of which are now minshuku (bed & breakfasts).
*** GOKAYAMA (Chūbu: Northwest from Nagoya). Downriver from Shirakawa-gō, Gokayama also has many gasshō-zukuri houses.
** CHIRAN (Kyūshū: Satsuma Peninsula). A tea-growing village of samurai-farmers.
** Kumejima (Okinawa: Ritō). This Okinawa island was the center of the Ryūkyū Kingdom's silk trade. Kumejima's exquisite silk pongee is still woven at the village of Nakazato, where one can also see rows of Okinawan houses enclosed by hedges and stone walls.
** TAKETOMI (Okinawa: Ritō). The best-preserved Okinawan village is situated on a tiny blossoming island in the midst of the Yaeyama islands. Local women weave minsā belts beneath the red-tile roofs.
For details and travel tips on visiting these villages, see Gateway to Japan, the Digital Edition.
