Meiji

Located in Omori-machi, Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, the Akagawa Family Residence Storehouse is a Meiji-era traditional kura registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2005. This single building embodies the refined craftsmanship of snow-country storehouse architecture and preserves the historic landscape of rural Akita at the foot of sacred Mount Horowa, offering visitors a glimpse into the understated dignity of everyday Japanese heritage.

The Former Taikawasō is a Meiji-era wooden garden villa overlooking the Nishimonai River in Ugo Town, Akita Prefecture. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2011, this elegant two-story building once hosted literary figures including haiku poet Kawahigashi Hekigotō. Now home to CAFE OHZAN's Forest Café, it blends historic charm with artisan confections in the heart of Bon dance country.

Built in 1908, the north rice storehouse is the largest of the former Nara estate's seven registered annexes, its roof laid continuous with the south store.

Built in 1881 as a resting place for Emperor Meiji's tour of the Ōu region, the Kitano rest house was later moved to the Nara estate, a belvedere rising from its roof.

Built in 1890, the zashiki storehouse at the former Nara estate carries an eight-mat reception room upstairs, serving both storage and hospitality at once.

Built in 1895 and joined to the main house until a 1966 restoration severed it, this wooden wing of the Nara estate holds a four-mat tea room on its upper floor.

Raised in 1874, the miso storehouse is the oldest of the former Nara estate's seven registered annexes, with a copper maneki roof and curved rising beams above.

Built in 1893, the south rice storehouse shares a continuous roof with the north store, the earlier of the paired buildings that held the Nara family's rice.

Built in 1900 for one of Akita's three great landlord families, this registered house answers deep snow with a wide earth-floored passage lit from high windows.

Completed in 1869 and wrapped inside an outer sheath building, this 16.4-metre storehouse is an uchigura, the interior storehouse form of southern Akita.

The Workshop at Kunibanzai Shuzo, Araya, Akita, is a late-Meiji L-shaped timber hall linking the brewing rooms and main house: kettles south, pressing north.

Built in 1908 and eighteen ken long, this is the oldest and longest fermentation storehouse at Kunibanzai Shuzo, its entrance a showcase of layered lime plasterwork.

This 1908 storehouse behind the Main House, the only two-storey vault at Kunibanzai Shuzo, began as a document store and now cultivates the brewery's yeast starter.

A magnificent Meiji-era thatched farmhouse in the Yuwa district of Akita City, originally built for the village headman of the Ōmiya family. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property showcases the distinctive chūmon-zukuri style and offers kiritanpo-making experiences and traditional room rentals.

The Great Buddha Hall of Chokokuj Temple in Yurihonjo City, Akita, houses the magnificent Akada Great Buddha — a gold-leafed Eleven-Faced Kannon standing nearly nine meters tall. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property is Akita's only large-scale Buddhist hall, faithfully rebuilt in the Meiji era with exquisite carvings and paintings by renowned artisans.

Deep in Akita's Nyūtō Onsen Village, the Honjin of Tsuru-no-Yu Onsen is a long thatched-roof lodging that preserves the atmosphere of an Edo-era therapeutic hot spring retreat. Originally the quarters of samurai guards accompanying Lord Satake Yoshitaka on his 1638 visit, the current Meiji-era structure was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2010. Its milky-white outdoor baths and irori hearth meals offer a rare immersion in a vanishing slice of rural Japan.

The only Naba Kamiten building with a firm date, 1897, and the largest storehouse at 157 square metres. Black plaster outside, a boat bracket at the ridge.

Rebuilt after Akita's 1886 Tawaraya Fire and registered in 2014, this 463-square-metre townhouse still trades as a washi paper shop. Low Edo roof, exposed beams.

An earthen archive storehouse of 106 square metres, its roof run into the main house so the two read as one. Middle Meiji fabric, moved here in 1908. Closed.

At 70 square metres, the smallest of the five registered buildings, standing alone across the street. Once the internal storehouse of a house that no longer stands.