b) Description and inventory

i) Ogimachi Village Ogimachi has 152 households and a population of 634 (as of August 1994). According to written sources in 1876, in those days Ogimachi Village, with 99 households, was the largest of the 23 villages in Shirakawa-Mura. The central part of the village is located on a terraced plateau on the east side of the Sho River, in a crescent-shaped area with a length of 1500m north-to-south and a width of 350m east-to-west. The northern part of the village spreads eastward into the narrow valley of the Ushikubi River, a small river which meets the Sho River at the north edge of the village. One part of the village, with only one household remaining, is located separately on the other side of the Sho River. The elevation of the river terrace is approximately 500m; most of this area is generally flat, but along the eastern edge near the foot of the mountains the ground slopes slightly upward. The nominated area, the Preservation District, is the area which contains most of the residential and agricultural land and a part of the forested mountain area to the east. The composition of the village layout is dominated by the large 6-meter-wide roadway which runs from north to south through the center, with a network of village roads, 2 to 4 meters in width, which spread out in a net-like pattern between the houses and the cultivated fields throughout the village. The old village roads retain the basic layout that has existed since before the Edo Period, but the wide central roadway was constructed much later, in 1890. Whereas the paths of the old village roads change width and direction in response to the irregular curves of the topography, the central roadway cuts straight through with no variation in width, somewhat out of character with the old road network. Therefore, although it is visually disturbing in the context of the pre-modern historic village landscape that surrounds it, one century has passed since its construction and by now this road has already become part of the history of the village. Most houses are on individual lots separated by cultivated plots of land. This configuration reflects the basic historic land-use pattern in Ogimachi Village, but in recent times continuous strips of residential land have formed along the central roadway. Each house lot is small in size and irregular in shape, and there are various site layout patterns in relation to the road. On the sloping land near the base of the mountain, the houses are situated on terraces supported by stone retaining walls. In many cases, the house lot is very open, since the boundaries are defined by roads, canals or cultivated plots, without fences, walls or hedges between the houses. The main house would normally be located at the rear of the site at the point furthest away from the road, with the open space in front of the house used for farm work, but because the lots in Ogimachi are small there is not much working space available in front. Most households have accessory buildings such as toilet buildings, wooden-walled storehouses or grain-drying shelters, but only the toilet facility is built adjacent to main house; most of the other accessory structures are located away from the house in the fields or forested areas. This was done with fire protection in mind, to keep the storage facilities at a safe distance in case fire broke out in the main house. Surrounding the house lots are irrigated rice fields and dry crop fields, most of which are small and irregularly shaped. Larger cultivated plots are found only to the south and north of the village. The dry crop land is now used for the cultivation of vegetables or beans, but in the past these plots were used mostly for raising kuwa (mulberry trees). The canals which feed the irrigated rice fields spread out like a net, snaking between the houses and the fields like the village roads. Hachiman Jinja, the Shinto shrine in which the guardian deity of the village is enshrined, is located slightly to the south of the village center at the point where the mountain reaches closest to the river, leaving only a narrow strip of flat land in between; the shrine precinct is on the slope at the base of the mountain, surrounded by a cedar grove. There are two Buddhist temples of the Jodo Shinshu Sect (the True Pure Land Sect) in the village: Myozen-ji, which is located at the foot of the mountains to the northeast of Hachiman Jinja, and Honkaku-ji, which is located on the opposite side of the main road to the northwest of Myozen-ji. Groups of Historic Buildings: The Group of Historic Buildings of Ogimachi Village (designated as buildings to be preserved) is composed mainly of Gassho-style houses. The Group of Historic Buildings is composed of 117 buildings and 7 other structures; the buildings include Gassho-style houses, Gassho-style houses which have been remodeled into two-story buildings, non-Gassho-style wooden houses, accessory buildings such as toilet buildings, wooden-walled storehouses and grain-drying shelters, and religious buildings. Gassho-style houses: There are 59 Gassho-style houses remaining in the Preservation District; including the Myozen-ji living quarters, a temple building which was built in the Gassho-style, the total reaches 60. Most of these Gassho-style houses were built between the end of the Edo Period and the end of Meiji Period (early 19th to beginning of 20th century), but the very oldest is judged to date back to the latter half of the 18th century. The most recently constructed houses were built in the early 20th century; this was the end of the construction of new Gassho-style houses. The roof ridge lines of all of the Gassho-style houses are lined up parallel to the Sho River. The composition of nearly identical architectural shapes all oriented in the same direction forms a very impressive village landscape. The plan configuration of most Gassho-style houses in Ogimachi is a three-room plan (hiroma-gata mitsu-madori), with one large room and two smaller rooms in addition to the earthen-floored space, but there are also four-room plans (yotsu-madori), and in the case of very large houses two more rooms are added. The entrance is usually on the long side of the house, but in a few exceptional cases it is located on the gable end. Remodeled Gassho-style houses: There is one building which has been remodeled from the Gassho-style to a two-story wooden building; this remodeling was done in 1958 by removing the roof structure above the usu-bari (the horizontal bottom member of the truss) and constructing a new wood post-and-beam second floor structure with a sheet-metal-clad gable roof framed with roof rafters. Non-Gassho-style houses: There are seven non-Gassho-style buildings. These are two-story buildings with normal post-and-beam structural systems, with rafter-framed roofs and sheet-metal roofing. The scale and appearance of these houses resemble the remodeled Gassho-style house. These houses were constructed between the early Meiji Period and the early Showa Period (late 19th to early 20th century). The existence of the remodeled Gassho-style house and the non-Gassho-style wooden houses shows the history of changes in house style in Ogimachi Village. These non-Gassho-style buildings and the remodeled house have over time settled into the village landscape and are now recognized as having historic value as part of the Group of Historic Buildings. Accessory buildings: Accessory buildings related to the Gassho-style houses include 10 toilet buildings, 25 wooden-walled storehouses, 7 grain-drying shelters and 3 millhouses. All are wooden one- or two-story structures which have thatched gable roofs with sasu (truss-like) roof-structure systems, and the forms resemble the Gassho-style main houses. Another type of accessory building is the teahouse structure in the temple grounds of Myozen-ji. Religious architecture: There are four religious buildings, including the Myozen-ji living quarters. The Myozen-ji main hall is a thatched, hipped-gable style building. The Myozen-ji Shoro-Mon (bell tower gate) is a two-storied wooden building with a thatched, hipped-gable roof; the first story is the gateway entrance, and the second story houses the temple bell. Other structures: There are 7 stone structures, including the torii gate and the toro (stone lanterns) of Hachiman Jinja, the stone wall of Honkaku-ji and the stone stairway of Myozen-ji. Environmental Features: There are 8 Environmental features, including the shrine grove of Hachiman Jinja, special trees and hedges in Myozen-ji, Honkaku-ji, the Wada House and the Nagase House, as well as portions of the village canal network (with the selected portions totaling 550 meters in length). These environmental features are all protected by preservation measures .