Thatched Roofs Japan

The thatched roof is made with grass such as susuki and yoshi.

Thatched roofs japan.

Registered as a unesco world heritage area the traditional houses with steep thatched roofs in gasshô zukuri style are the region s main tourist attraction only reachable by bus or by car. Thatching is the craft of building a roof with dry vegetation such as straw water reed sedge rushes heather or palm branches layering the vegetation so as to shed water away from the inner roof. Despite economic upheavals the villages of ogimachi ainokura and suganuma are outstanding examples of a traditional way of life perfectly adapted to the environment and people s social and economic circumstances. Although these roofs require full replacement every 30 to 50 years today there are still over 100 thousand historical buildings featuring thatched roofs among them traditional houses buddhist temples shinto shrines and tea houses.

Thatch is still employed by builders in developing countries usually with low. Since the bulk of the vegetation stays dry and is densely packed trapping air thatching also functions as insulation. Shirakawago is a gathering of historical japanese villages located in shokawa valley in the northern part of gifu prefecture in central honshu. The thatched roof inn matabe.

By doing so heat insulation heat retention breathability and sound insulation of the building are improved. There are many types of accommodations in miyama such as inn thatched roof inn farmhouse japanese traditional inn etc. Sliding doors fusuma were used in place of walls allowing the internal configuration of a space to be customized for different occasions. The thatched roof huts were specifically designed to withstand heavy amounts of snowfall and some date back more than 250 years.

Thatching adds to the variety and local characteristics of traditional houses and rural landscapes. It is a very old roofing method and has been used in both tropical and temperate climates. It adapted to the climate and nature of a region. In japanese its name literally means the village of the white river.

Thatching in japan was used commonly for the roofs of traditional houses temples and shrines. Their historical value many of these formerly popular homes were demolished and replaced by more modern structures during the bubble era the years of inflated japanese prosperity namely 1986 through 1991. Thatched roofs were used in japan since the oldest times. Kinkaku ji kyoto originally built in 1397 muromachi period japanese architecture 日本建築 nihon kenchiku has been typified by wooden structures elevated slightly off the ground with tiled or thatched roofs.

The large houses with their steeply pitched thatched roofs are the only examples of their kind in japan.