Edo

Discover Mandaraji Temple's Main Hall (Shodo), an Important Cultural Property in Konan City, Aichi. Built in 1632 with a design inspired by the Imperial Shishinden, this Jodo sect temple also offers spectacular wisteria gardens each spring.

The Omoya of the Mochizuki Family Residence in Shinshiro, Aichi, is a late 18th-century thatched dwelling block whose fire, earth floor and stable stand next door.

Rokusho Shrine in Okazaki City, Aichi Prefecture, is a historic Shinto shrine revered as the guardian deity of Tokugawa Ieyasu's birthplace. Five of its buildings — the Main Hall, Offering Hall, Worship Hall, Divine Kitchen, and Tower Gate — are designated Important Cultural Properties of Japan. Built under the patronage of the third Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, these structures showcase stunning polychrome decorations and gongen-zukuri architecture rivaling the splendor of Nikko Toshogu.

The Asahi Shrine Lattice Wall, a banbei screen of 1809 beside a torii in central Nagoya, was registered in 2022. Its lattice, copper roof and access explained.

Anchoji Sanmon in Toyota City, Aichi, is an 1832 temple gate registered in 2017. Its upper floor held a Buddhist altar, not a bell, a form rare at Shinshu temples.

A late Edo mud-walled storehouse at the rear of a townhouse plot in Inuyama, Aichi. Two storeys, 59 square metres, round-log posts, a deep eave over the doors.

A late Edo townhouse facing Honmachi in Inuyama, Aichi. 175 square metres, with an earth-floored passage, two rows of rooms and a low half-storey. Registered 2005.

The ōiden of Ushida Hachiman Shrine in Chiryu, Aichi, built around 1856, encloses the older honden and is shaped like a full main hall with a carved canopy.

At Ushida Hachiman Shrine in Chiryu, Aichi, a small Edo-period honden sits within a covering hall, anchoring a rare line of four halls registered in 2024.

On Honmachi-dori, which climbs to Inuyama Castle, this late-Edo townhouse is unusually broad at 11.8 meters, its face black plaster behind lattice. Listed 2004.

A registered belfry at Unkoji temple in Seto, Aichi. A ridge tag dates it to 1810 and names its carpenter. Local Akazu tiles roof it; the bell was recast in 2009.

Eijuji's Kyozo is a tiny mud-walled storehouse, about three metres square, in the temple's northeast. Plaster walls and a pyramidal roof guarded its scriptures.

Joined to the east of Eijuji's main hall, the kuri and shoin form its largest building: a kitchen with earthen floor and stove, and two formal fifteen-mat rooms.

Eijuji's mountain gate is a four-legged zelkova structure carved in 1794 by the noted Shinshu Tatekawa school, its beams wrapped in deep three-dimensional relief.

On the west of Eijuji's front garden, the shuryo was the monks' communal quarters. An earthen passage runs east, and six rooms of graded size fill two rows.

Southwest of Eijuji's main hall stands the zendo, a meditation hall of 1722. A gabled canopy fronts it; tatami fills the center, board floors run along the sides.

Eijuji Temple Main Hall in Shinshiro, Aichi, was built in 1697 and registered in 2019. Six rooms, four round pillars and traces of a vanished earth floored passage.

The Kuri (priests' quarters) of Enmyō-ji in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, is an unusual structure that began life as a merchant townhouse in the late Edo-period castle town and was relocated and reassembled within the temple precinct in the mid-Meiji period. With a gabled pantile roof and a footprint of about 314 square meters, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2012. As a rare surviving example of a castle-town machiya repurposed as a temple residence, it pairs naturally with a walk through Inuyama's preserved old town and a visit to nearby Inuyama Castle.

Standing in Inuyama's historic temple district just minutes from the National Treasure castle, the Enmyo-ji Belfry is a three-meter-square open-sided bell tower built between 1661 and 1751. Its Zen-style structural body, densely packed two-stepped brackets, jar-strut gable decoration, and deeply curved eaves earned it Registered Tangible Cultural Property status in 2012. Discover a hidden architectural gem set within a temple famous for its 300-year-old weeping cherry tree.

Discover Enmyoji Temple's Main Hall, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Inuyama, Aichi. Built in the early Edo period and renovated in 1689, this Jodo Shinshu sanctuary preserves rare architectural features and stands beside a magnificent 300-year-old weeping cherry tree.