Important Cultural Property of Aichi

Completed in 1898 in central Sapporo, the Former Sapporo Telephone Exchange is a two-story stone building that housed Hokkaido's first telephone exchange operations. Built with locally quarried Sapporo soft stone in an elegant Renaissance-inspired style, it is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Now preserved at Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, it features an interactive exhibition on the history of telephone communication in Japan.

At Sanmyo-ji in Toyokawa City rises a 14.5-meter pagoda rebuilt in 1531. Its lower stories follow the Japanese style; the third turns to the Zen style, a rare mix.

Inside Sanmyo-ji's main hall in Toyokawa City stands a wooden tabernacle for the Benzaiten image. Built in 1554, it takes the form of a Shinto shrine sanctuary.

In Ama City west of Nagoya stands the two-storied South Gate of Jimokuji, the city's oldest wooden building, designated in 1900, with guardian statues below.

A two-storied tahoto at Shokaiji in Inazawa, Aichi, from the mid-Muromachi period. Its bracketing blends two imported styles; the grounds are famed for hydrangeas.

The main hall of Jokoji in Seto, Aichi, known as Muiden. A Zen-style hall of 1493 with a skirting pent roof, it stands below the first Owari lord's mausoleum.

The Former Shoden-in Shoin in Urakuen, Inuyama, Aichi, built around 1618 as a retreat for the tea master Oda Urakusai. It stands beside the Jo-an teahouse.

The Kannon hall of Shinkomyoji in Okazaki, Aichi, built in 1478. A Zen-style hall at a Pure Land temple founded by the Matsudaira, ancestors of Tokugawa Ieyasu.

A lighthouse keeper's quarters of 1873, built under British engineer R. H. Brunton beside the Sugashima Lighthouse in Mie. The brick house now stands at Meiji Mura.

Built in 1902 to reconnect the Kiso and Nagara rivers after Meiji works divided them, this brick lock still raises and lowers boats and is among Japan's earliest.

Daiju-ji's tahoto in Okazaki, Aichi, was built in 1535 by Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, grandfather of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Its square lower story meets a round upper drum.

Takisanji's two-story gate near Okazaki, an Important Cultural Property since 1901, keeps a medieval temple-gate form, dated between 1267 and early Muromachi.

Takisan-ji's main hall in Okazaki, Aichi, is a cypress-bark-roofed esoteric Buddhist hall of the early Muromachi period, and the stage for a winter fire festival.

Ordered by the third shogun Iemitsu and finished in 1646, Takisan Tosho-gu in Okazaki keeps its main hall, gate and other buildings in vivid lacquer and colour.

At Choko-ji in Inazawa stands a rare hexagonal hall of 1510, regarded as the only surviving medieval example of its form, with a Kamakura-period iron Jizo within.

Rebuilt in 1509, the tahoto at Chiryu Shrine survived the Meiji separation of Buddhism and Shinto by posing as a library, a rare relic of combined worship.

Tucked into the mountains of Okazaki in Aichi Prefecture, the main gate of Tenonji Temple is widely regarded as Japan's oldest surviving yakuimon-style gate and a designated National Important Cultural Property. Built in the late Muromachi period, this single-bay gate combines a wood-shingle gabled roof, round pillars, and refined decorative carvings to embody both Zen austerity and quiet ornament. Visitors can also explore the historic Ashikaga-founded Zen temple precinct and the legends linked to Tokugawa Ieyasu.

Tucked into the wooded hills of southern Okazaki City in Aichi Prefecture, Ten'onji Buddha Hall is one of Japan's finest surviving examples of medieval Zen architecture. Founded in 1362 by the third Ashikaga shōgun Yoshimitsu and designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1907, this Muromachi-period hall preserves the formal zenshūyō style with its cypress-bark roof, round columns, dense bracket sets, flame-shaped windows, and Zen sumeidan altar. The temple is also celebrated as the place where Tokugawa Ieyasu spent a night on his way to the Battle of Nagashino in 1575.

On Mt. Hōrai in Aichi, this shrine to Tokugawa Ieyasu is tied to a legend of his birth. Its cypress-bark halls of 1651 are an Important Cultural Property.

A rare wooden three-storey townhouse, the former Tomatsu House traces a Nagoya family's shift from oil to banking; now at Meiji-mura, its stern face hides tea rooms.