THE ORIGINS OF THE GASSHO STYLE HOUSE
It is quite difficult to determine when the Gassho style first
appeared because so few Gassho-style houses remain today, and
also because there are no written traces, records or other resources
to indicate dates of construction. Among the remaining houses,
however, one of the oldest ones is estimated to have been built
at the end of the 17th century, as deducted from an analysis of
the planning methods and the construction techniques, together
with a limited amount of information gained from the oral history
of the area.
According to these estimates, by around the end of the 17th century
the basic form of the Gassho-style house had been standardized,
and later during the 18th and 19th centuries the size of the houses
and the functional usage of the roof structural space continued
to evolve toward their present condition together with the development
of the gunpowder production and silkworm production industries.
