5 unmissable things to do in Takayama and Shirakawa-go

Steeped in history, the former castle town of Takayama blossomed as a centre of trade and craftsmanship during the Edo period (1603–1867. The mountainous and forested area around the city was traditionally allowed to pay taxes in skilled labour instead of the usual rice, and its carpenters and woodworkers in particular became renowned across the country. This heritage remains conspicuous in Takayama, whose beautifully preserved old town is almost entirely made up of machiya townhouses where merchants and artisans lived and worked during the Edo period.

The distinctive architectural features of these long and narrow wooden buildings can be admired on a walk through the city’s Sanmachi, Shimo-Ninomachi and Ojinmachi neighbourhoods, where many long-established businesses including artisans’ workshops, traditional restaurants and sake breweries operate out of machiya.

Get up early to peruse the wares of the energetic greengrocers, craftspeople, souvenir dealers and other local merchants that set up their stalls along the Miyagawa River in central Takayama from 7am every day. One of the liveliest temporary marketplaces in Japan, the Miyagawa Morning Market features up to 60 stalls and is ideal for scoring organic fruits and vegetables grown on the plains and in the lush hills throughout northern Gifu.

Besides fresh produce, you’ll find a plentiful selection of spices, pickles, snacks and sweet treats, as well as handicrafts including handmade dolls and ornamental carvings made from the wood of the Japanese yew tree, a prized resource in the area since ancient times.

Adjacent to Takayama, the small town of Furukawa offers a charming snapshot of old Japan. A gently flowing river filled with carp runs through the town, a streetscape preservation district dotted with traditional townhouses that resemble those in Takayama with their evocative wooden décor and majestic exposed beams.

In Furukawa, however, many of these houses have been ingeniously converted for contemporary use while retaining their historical charm. Some machiya now host chic hotels and guesthouses, while others accommodate restaurants from humble ramen shops to kaiseki kitchens specialising in artful meals highlighting locally sourced seasonal ingredients. Before or after your meal, you can explore the region’s woodworking heritage at the Hida Takumi carpentry museum.

From Takayama, an hour-long bus ride west through the mountains takes you to Shirakawa-go, a group of villages set in a narrow river valley and renowned for their traditional thatched-roof farmhouses built in the gassho or ‘praying hands’ style. The steeply slanted triangular roofs of the houses – said to resemble two hands pressed together in prayer – were developed to prevent the heavy snowfall that covers Shirakawa-go every winter from accumulating and damaging the houses.

In Ogimachi, the largest village in Shirakawa-go and a World Heritage site, magical views of the village and its snow-covered gassho houses can be admired on Sunday evenings in January and early February, when a light-up display takes place. Some of the houses double as museums and can be entered year-round, while others host restaurants and small shops.

Vegetables and legumes play a leading role in the culinary culture of Shirakawa-go, which has deep roots in the Buddhist faith and its embrace of vegetarianism. For instance, suttate soup – a thick mixture of freshly ground soybeans and broth made with miso and soy sauce – was originally served mainly on religious occasions. Its popularity burgeoned after some enterprising local residents invented suttate nabe, a creamy hot pot dish in which suttate is combined with ingredients such as mushrooms, scallions and brand-name Hida beef.

Suttate nabe is available at select restaurants in and around Ogimachi, as is ishiwari (‘stone-breaking’) tofu, another local speciality. Not quite as hard as the name suggests, the dish consists of a solid slab of tofu served on an iron plate and eaten with soy sauce and katsuobushi (dried, fermented, and smoked fish flakes).