a) History

iv) Social System In each village in the Shirakawa-go / Gokayama area there is a mutual help organization called the kumi, composed of neighborhood households, operating under a special cooperative system which has been followed continuously since the Edo Period and which is still active now. The kumi in each area organizes seasonal or daily tasks, done together in cooperation or shared in rotation, including such tasks as such as grass-cutting along the mountain roadways, cleaning the canals, making the rounds to call out fire-prevention warnings, and performing roles in religious functions. In addition, the traditional mutual help system, the custom of yui or koryaku, is followed in the case of ceremonies such as marriages or funerals or in work projects such as house construction or the rethatching of roofs. It can be said that this type of social system based on mutual cooperation was essential for survival in a deep mountain area with very limited production capacity under severe natural conditions, but it should also be pointed out that the evolution of this social system was no doubt influenced by the strong spiritual connections generated among the people by the Jodo Shin Sect faith. In several villages in the Shirakawa-go / Gokayama area an extended family system once existed, with from 10 to 30 relatives living together in one house. This system included not only vertical, multi-generation relationships but also horizontal relationships, with the head-of-household couple, their brothers and sisters, the sisters' children, the first sun's family and other children all living together. According to some scholars, this type of extended family system was quite unusual, existing only in this part of Japan. Even in this area, however, the system was not universally adopted; among the different villages within the Shirakawa-go and Gokayama area, this system was found primarily in those villages in which the living conditions were the most severe, where the proportion of cultivated land was less than average. By now the system has disappeared entirely. v) Folklore In the Shirakawa-go / Gokayama area, factors that make up the background of the local culture include the special geological and climatic conditions as well as the various types of production such as paper-making, ensho production and sericulture in addition to agricultural production. Religion has been another significant factor, as this was an important area in the history of Jodo Shin Sect propagation, and because of the way that the people of this area, tied together by strong faith, value religion as an important part of daily life. Therefore care is taken to preserve and to hand down to future generations the various important cultural properties and materials related to the local folklore, such as the various festivals and functions related to agriculture or religion, the songs and dances related to those festivals or functions, and also the traditional tools and instruments of daily life and the production tools for the once-vital local industries which have since disappeared.