Extent of the Heritage Site

　The heritage property consists of three mountain villages—Ogimachi, Ainokura, and Suganuma—scattered across the steep valleys at the foot of Mount Hakusan in Shirakawa-go and the Gokayama region. Administratively, Ogimachi belongs to Shirakawa Village in Ōno District, Gifu Prefecture, while Ainokura and Suganuma belong to Nanto City in Toyama Prefecture.

　The three villages are protected by a surrounding Type I buffer zone (areas where changes to the environment are strictly limited in order to preserve favorable natural or historical settings). Beyond that lies a broader Type II buffer zone encompassing all three sites, where large-scale development is restricted to safeguard the natural environment and cultural landscape.

Extent of Shirakawa-go and Gokayama
　The names Shirakawa-go and Gokayama were used for this region prior to the Edo period. On the map shown to the right, the blue and green areas indicate the buffer zones of the World Heritage property, but Shirakawa-go and Gokayama extend over a wider area than these zones. The blue buffer zone corresponds to present-day Shirakawa Village. However, the traditional area of Shirakawa-go also includes Shokawa Town and Morimo, Kiyomi Town in Takayama City bordering the south (lower part of the map). The green buffer zone corresponds to the former villages of Taira and Kamitaira (now within Nanto City), but the traditional area of Gokayama also extends to the east (right side of the map) to include the former village of Toga (now Toga in Nanto City).

Map showing the extent of the Shirakawa-go World Heritage site

*Click to view details.

Legal Status of the Property

　The three villages that make up the property are protected as Important Preservation Districts for Groups of Traditional Buildings under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. The category “Groups of Traditional Buildings” was newly established with the revision of the law in July of 1975 and is defined as “groups of traditional buildings of high value which, together with their surrounding environment, form a historic landscape.”

Preservation Districts	Dates of Designation
Ogimachi, Shirakawa Village – Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings	September 4, 1976
Ainokura, Nanto City – Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings	December 21, 1994
Suganuma, Nanto City – Preservation District for Groups of Traditional Buildings	December 21, 1994

Legal Status of the Buffer Zones

　The buffer zones surrounding the three villages are protected primarily under the following legal regulations.

Villages
Ogimachi, Shirakawa Village	Type I Buffer Zone	Special Landscape Formation District under the Shirakawa Village Landscape Ordinance (based on the Landscape Act)
	Type II Buffer Zone	Landscape Planning Area under the Shirakawa Village Landscape Ordinance (based on the Landscape Act)
Ainokura and Suganuma, Nanto City	Type I Buffer Zone	National Historic Site; Gokayama Prefectural Nature Park (based on the Toyama Prefectural Nature Park Ordinance)
	Type II Buffer Zone	Landscape Planning Area under the Nanto City Gokayama Landscape Ordinance (local ordinance)