Wada House

The Wada House is the largest “Gassho-Zukuri” building in Shirakawa-go, which was built in the middle of the Edo period.
Despite being a 300-year-old house, it is maintained in good condition, and the platform in its entrance is symbolic of the high-status of the Wada family who lived in this house.
The house was designated as an important cultural property of the country in 1995.
The steep thatched roof, with an almost 60-degree tilt creates a large attic space, which was used to install breeding sheds for sericulture, or silk farming, in the Edo period.
On the second floor of the house is an exhibit of rare sericulture tools that are no longer used.
The Wada family is said to have flourished by trading gunpowder, which was an important source of income in Shirakawa-go, while also working as a senior official of guard houses for village chiefs and village borders.