Gassho-style house is one of the most important farmhouse types, due to its rarity and uniqueness, as well as the fact that the surviving examples are clustered together in entire villages.

Gassho-style house is larger than most other regions' farmhouses, and the roof of Gassho-style is a taller. Besides, Gassho-style house has a steeply-sloped thatched gable roof with an angle of about 60 degrees. This roof shape looks like person’s hands put together with the palms facing inward. This is the origin of the name of the architectural style "Gassho". Gassho means to join one's hands in prayer.

As it snows heavily in winter in this region, this steeply-sloped roof helps the snow to slip off and prevents the house from being crushed. The structural space inside is typically divided into three or four levels which were traditionally used as a work space, for example, for raising silkworms and making washi paper. Such in-house works during winter provided an important source of income in Shirakawago, because agricultural products are quite limited in the mountainous areas.