b) Description and inventory

iii) Suganuma Village Suganuma is a small village with only 8 households and a population of 40. According to 1889 records, however, Suganuma had 13 households at that time and was ninth in size among the 19 villages of Kamitaira-mura, making it average in scale among those villages. The village is located on a tongue-shaped terraced plateau which is 230m north-to-south and 240m east-to-west, projecting toward the north, situated along the Sho River bank at the point where the river bends eastward. The elevation of the village is approximately 33Om. The land is nearly level, with a gentle slope: the southeastern area is about 7m higher than the northwestern area. The area to the south of the plateau is a steep mountain slope. The Preservation District is located in the level area containing the residential and agricultural land, but the mountain forests behind the village -- with growths of Japanese beech, horse chestnut, and oak trees -- are protected as well, to serve as a snow-holding forest area, and the cutting of trees is restricted. Most of the houses are concentrated in the southeastern part of the level area. All of the households have wooden or earthen-walled storehouses or other accessory buildings or structures, but only a few of these are built adjacent to the main houses - most being located in separate areas. Thus each house lot is small, with no need to accommodate accessory buildings, and there are no surrounding walls or hedges to separate neighboring lots. As for agricultural land, except for one large irrigated rice field in the lower area in the northwest part of the village, most of the cultivated area consists of small, irregularly-shaped irrigated rice fields and vegetable plots located around the houses. Before 1945, when irrigation was introduced to this side of the river, sourced by aqueduct from the opposite bank, most of this agricultural land was used for raising mulberry trees. The Shinmei-sha, the Shinto shrine which enshrines the guardian deity of Suganuma Village, is located on a slight rise to the north of the southern area, surrounded by a Japanese cedar grove. The Shinmei-sha was formerly located slightly southeast of its present location, but was moved in 1937 next to the national road on the mountainside to the south, and was then moved once again to its present location in 1970 when the road was widened. Historic Buildings: The Group of Historic Buildings of Suganuma Village (designated as buildings to be preserved) is composed mainly of Gassho-style houses. The Group of Historic Buildings is composed of 28 buildings and 2 other structures; the buildings include Gassho-style houses, non-Gassho-style wooden houses, accessory buildings such as wooden- or earthen-walled storehouses and waterwheel houses, and religious buildings. Gassho-style houses: There are 9 Gassho-style houses remaining in the Preservation District. Among these, two were constructed in the end of the Edo Period (early 19th century), and six were built in the Meiji Period (1868-1912). The most recently constructed house was built in 1925. The basic plan of most Gassho-style houses in Suganuma is a four-room square plan (yotsu-madori), but in the case of larger-scale houses the plan has six rooms (mutsu-madori) in addition to the earthen-floored space. In smaller houses there are three rooms (hiroma-gata mitsu-madori). In many cases the entrance is located in the center of the shed-roofed half-bay projection on the gable end. These shed-roof projections now have sheet-metal roofs, but the roofs were originally thatched, joined to the lower portion of the main gable roof -- giving the building a profile roughly resembling a hipped-gable roof form. Thus the houses of Suganuma had a character somewhat different from those of Shirakawa-go, with no gable-end projections and with their entrances on the long side. Non-Gassho-style houses: There are three non-Gassho-style buildings. All are two-story buildings which have normal post-and-beam structural systems and roof structures framed with rafters. One of these, with a thatched roof, was constructed in 1916; another, which was originally thatched but which now has a clay-tile roof, was built in 1933, and the third, also with a clay-tile roof, was built in 1949. The existence of the non-Gassho-style wooden houses shows the history of changes in house style in Suganuma Village. These non-Gassho-style buildings 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: There are 10 wooden-walled storehouses, 3 earthen-walled storehouses, and 1 waterwheel house. Among the wooden-walled storehouses there are two one-story buildings and eight two-story buildings, three with sasu (truss-like) structures and thatched roofs. The others have gable roofs with clay-tile or sheet-metal roofing; among these, however, the three buildings which were built in the late 19th century originally had sasu roof structures and thatch roofing. The earthen-walled storehouses are two-story gable-roofed structures in the oki-yane style, roofed with clay tile; one of these was originally roofed with wooden shingles. Both wooden- and earthen-walled storehouses were built with fire protection in mind, and were therefore located some distance away from the main residences. In the area around the Shinmei-sha, where there are no houses, seven wooden- and earthen-walled storehouses (over half the total of thirteen) are grouped together. The waterwheel house is located next to the river west of the center of the southern part of the Preservation District. Religious architecture: Two buildings in the Shinmei-sha are included: the shelter for the main shrine building and the worship hall. The shelter for the main shrine building has a gabled, sheet-metal-clad roof, and the worship hall has a hipped-gable roof with sheet-copper roofing. Other structures: There are two stone structures, the torii gate and the komainu (guardian-dog) statues at the gate of Shinmei-sha. Environmental Features: There are two Environmental Features, the spring-water pond and the Shinmei-sha shrine grove.