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Joe Steinbring

Shirakawa-go (Shirakawa)

A bright green rice paddy beside a thatched farmhouse, with mountains under a clear sky.
Rice still grows between the houses in Ogimachi, Shirakawa-go’s main village.2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring
Static offline map showing Shirakawa-go (Shirakawa) in Japan with a location pin.

Shirakawa-go was our second stop on July 22, 2026, after a morning in Nanto. It shares a World Heritage listing with the villages of Gokayama, and Ogimachi, its main village, is the largest of them. My nephew and I started at Myozen-ji, the village temple, whose old living quarters, one of the largest gassho-zukuri houses in Ogimachi, are now a museum of how people here lived, then walked out among the thatched farmhouses and the rice paddies that still grow between them.

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  • Two steep-roofed thatched farmhouses beyond a paddy of young rice, with wooded hills behind.

    The roofs are said to look like hands pressed together in prayer, which is what gassho means.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • A gilded altar glimpsed through open doors, between sliding doors painted with pines and cranes.

    Myozen-ji, the temple at the heart of Ogimachi since 1748.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

  • Straw sandals, baskets, a cartwheel, and old tools under a sign in the attic of a thatched house.

    The attic of the Myozen-ji museum, where the tools of village life are kept.

    2026 · Photograph by Joe Steinbring

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