a) Reasons for which the property is considered to meet one or more of the World Heritage criteria with, as appropriate, a comparative evaluation of the property in relation to other properties of a similar type

Bruno Taut, the famous German architect who stayed in Japan from 1933 to 1936 and traveled widely to see and study Japanese architecture, wrote several books and articles about this subject. Among the many buildings that Taut saw, he placed special emphasis on the Gassho-style houses of the Shirakawa area, and his comments offer further documentation of the uniqueness of Gassho-style architecture in comparison with other architectural styles in Japan: "These buildings present something unique in Japan in so far as their construction is rational and logical throughout.""... everything shows the same logic of carpentry as the European. One could just as well call this construction Gothic. The roof is made with clear triangular joints like the roofs of the Middle Ages in the West, and is also reinforced lengthwise by means of great diagonals against wind pressure or earthquakes, and on the ground floor the thrust of the roof is quite logically directed to the outer posts." (Taut, Bruno, "Fundamentals of Japanese Architecture", Tokyo: Kokusai bunka shinkokai, 1936) In addition to the above, the following points help to illustrate further the outstanding value of these Gassho-style houses and villages and to demonstrate why they deserve special attention for protection: 1. The Shirakawa-go and Gokayama areas were remote and isolated with very difficult access, surrounded by the steep mountains of the Chubu Region in central Japan. Until the 1950s the relations between this area and the outside world were very limited, and this area was up until then often referred to as "the last unexplored area" remaining in Japan. 2. Because of this isolation, the culture of the Shirakawa-go and Gokayama areas developed relatively independently from the surrounding region, confined to narrow valleys connected by the Sho River. The unique culture of this area was molded on social systems and lifestyle customs derived primarily from a single spiritual source, the Jodo Shinshu sect of Buddhism. 3. The architectural style of the Gassho house can be found only in the Shirakawa-go and Gokayama areas. In the late 19th century, when the number of these houses reached its peak, the total count was only approximately 1860. Compared to the total number of farmhouses in Japan at that time, approximately 5.5 million, the percentage of Gassho-style houses was 0.03% -- a figure that emphatically attests to the extreme rarity of their existence. 4. The number of Gassho-style houses and villages has decreased drastically, nearly to the point of extinction, due in large part to social changes related to Japan's rapid economic development after World War II. 5. Under these circumstances, the properties selected for the World Heritage List nomination were only those places where Gassho-style houses still remain as groups and where the original village landscape remains intact, and also where proper protective measures have been taken in accordance with appropriate conservation laws and regulations. In regard to these points, the nominated properties meet the following criteria in Article 24 of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention: iv) be an outstanding example of a type of building or architectural ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history; or v) be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement or land-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible change The reasons supporting the decision to submit a single nomination which combines the three villages is as follows: 1. Ogimachi, Ainokura and Suganuma villages are physically separated from each other, but these three villages are the only ones which remain as good examples of the old Gassho-style village landscape. Thus in terms of historic preservation values the entire legacy of the historic Gassho-style village can be considered to be represented by a finite area which contains all three villages, and this area should be considered as a single cultural entity for purposes of the nomination. 2. By conserving the three villages as one set of properties, this reinforces the understanding of the fact that these villages had once been part of a single cultural area which had regional scale. 3. These three villages are a good set of examples of large-scale, medium-scale and small-scale villages, providing evidence of the diversity in the size of the villages. 4. Even within the same general category of Gassho-style houses, there are differences between the styles of the Shirakawa-go and Gokayama houses: a) Gokayama houses have gable-end entries while Shirakawa-go houses have their entry on the long side; b) the gable ends of the Gokayama houses have first-floor shed-roofed projections while Shirakawa-go houses typically have none; c) the profile of the gables of Shirakawa-go houses, when seen from the side, leans outward toward the top, whereas the Gokayama gables are vertical in profile; d) Gokayama houses typically have a large earthen-floored space, but Shirakawa-go houses have only small earthen-floored spaces or none at all. With such differences in mind, the value of preserving the Gassho-style houses not only of Shirakawa-go but also of the Gokayama area is enhanced by the evidence of tangible differences even within such a small cultural area. The same thing can be noted in the case of other village landscape features: In Ogimachi, among the accessory buildings there are storage structures with thatched roofs which resemble the Gassho-style, while in Suganuma and Ainokura the accessory buildings are typically clay-walled structures with tile roofs. Thus the village landscapes here have a character recognizably different from that of Ogimachi. In regard to the above points, in accordance with Article 19 of the Operational Guidelines for the Implementation of the World Heritage Convention, "this condition meets the criteria for a single nomination of a series of cultural properties in different geographical locations, provided that they are related because they belong to (i) the same historico-cultural group or (ii) the same type of property which is characteristic or geographical zone (iii) (not applicable) and provided that it is the series as such, and not its components taken individually, which is of outstanding universal value".