The Japan Alps and the North Chubu Coast Feature - Places to
Explore - Travel Tips - Fodor's Choice - Japanese Phrases It's
tempting to think of traditional domestic architecture in Japan,
with its paper windows and tatami mats and sliding screens as,
well, insubstantial. The moment you see a gassho-zukuri
farmhouse, that temptation will disappear. The term gassho-
zukuri in Japanese means "praying hands." As hands come
together, fingertips touching, in Buddhist observance, so lie
the sloping, gable roofs of these remarkable farmhouses,
watertight layers of reed thatching 3 feet thick or more, over
massive wooden beams, set at a steep 60-degree angle to keep the
snow from piling up. The mountain forests of Gifu and Toyama
prefectures in the Japan Alps, where most of these houses
survive, get some of the heaviest snow falls in Japan—12 feet of
it, from November through March, is not uncommon—and no less a
roof would do. The houses, four and sometimes five stories high,
are usually built on a north-south axis, s