Built on the side of a lonely cliff, sits the former building of Oyama Elementary School. The school overlooks the small neighborhood of Yui, the northern most neighbor of Shirakawa before officially entering the modern day Hida region.
It was originally opened in 1873 at Bunan Community Elementary School 文安義校, serving the communities of Nohara Village 野原村、Katsumake Village 葛牧村、Tajima Village 田島村、Yui Village 油井村、and Utsuo Village 宇津尾村.
(Note) I'm translating gikou 義校 as community elementary school. Gikous were elementary schools, but they were entirely funded by the community and private businesses, not the government. In the 1870s, during the Meiji Restoration, Japan passed its first law instituting mandatory elementary school education for all children. However, the government didn't have enough money to build schools in all its rural areas, so others filled in those gaps. By 1880, the government bought the building and took over as administrators. At that time, it was renamed to Bunan School 文安学校.
After more schools were builts in the 1880s, Bunan served different communities and changed names a few times. In 1889, new redistricting laws were passed that established many of the small villages as a single municipalty. As such, many schools were shuffled around again. By 1910, the school was renamed to Oyama Elementary School 大山小学校.
More redistricting happened over time, and by 1984, the school was closed and merged into Shirakawa Kita Elementary School, just 5 kilometers south along the valley.
Since its closure, the building has been used as a community center and the Nohi Construction Vocation School 濃飛建設職業能力開発学校, which is how it is marked on Google Maps.
The old wooden structure of the building is still in tact giving a very nostalgic old world feel. It reminds me of Kokuriko, the Ghibli Film.
I could take a few pictures through the windows, but the building was closed. There was a buzzing beeping sound coming from the front door, so I didn't want to set off any alarm by trying all the doors.
Overall, it's pretty amazing that this original building still stands. This probably isn't the original 1870s building, but this style of school was usually built around the 1920s and 30s. There are so many classic buildings like this along the walls of these old valleys.
