Rival Tokugawa and Maeda Clan Secret Weapon Production Facilities in World Heritage Villages

World Heritage Listed Villages, Shirakawa-go and Gokayama’s Deadly Secrets.

The sleepy, ancient villages of Gokayama in Toyama Prefecture and Shirakawa-go in far northern Gifu Prefecture have a number of things in common. Both are located in remote mountainous areas of Japan. Both are rice, millet and silkworm farming villages, both have remained in a time loop, with their culture, lifestyles and townscapes still trapped in the Edo period. Both villages have become world famous for being UNESCO World Heritage Sites because of their old-fashioned traditional A-framed, thick thatched roofed Gassho-zukuri houses, and both have a sinister secret, one that even today is rarely mentioned. The production of …Ensho.