Historic Sites, Places of Scenic Beauty, and Natural Monuments of Japan

The burial ground of the Yamauchi lords of Tosa on Mount Hitsuzan in Kochi, a Historic Site since 2016, with huge grave markers and turtle-based steles.

A roadside chisha tree in Shimanto, Kochi, Niida no Hirohachishanoki is over 700 years old, 8.5 meters around its base, and a National Natural Monument since 1943.

This Sakawa limestone cave yielded fine raised-line pottery and tanged spearpoints from c.12,000 years ago, placing them among Japan's earliest known ceramics.

Located in Kanzaki City, Saga Prefecture, the Anegawa Castle Ruins (Anegawa-jō Ato) are the remains of a late-medieval castle designated a National Historic Site in 2010. Defended not by stone walls but by a net-like network of waterways that divide the site into multiple inhabited islands, this rare moated-village castle is considered one of the largest and best-preserved examples of its kind in Japan. Founded in 1360 by Kikuchi Takeyasu and held for generations by his descendants the Anegawa clan, the site is also said to have served as a model for the later Saga Castle.

Discover the Imari Bay Horseshoe Crab Breeding Ground in Saga, Japan—a designated National Natural Monument and one of the country's largest spawning sites for the "living fossil" horseshoe crab. Learn about summer spawning observation events, the Kabutogani Hall, and a unique shrine dedicated to these ancient creatures.

This national Historic Site near Imari in Saga preserves the Nabeshima domain's official kiln, where porcelain for the shogun was fired from the 1660s until 1870.

In Takeo, Saga, this ancient hilltop fortress is ringed by a 1,866-meter line of cut stone. Its 1963 excavation settled a long debate over what kogoishi sites were.

Four Yayoi cemeteries in Karatsu, Saga, a Historic Site since 1966 and enlarged in 2014, showing early dolmens and the probable royal tomb of the land of Matsuro.

Medieval quarries in Ogawa, Saitama, a Historic Site since 2014, where green schist was cut and shaped into blanks for the Musashi-type stone tablets of Kanto.

Three green-schist itabi of 1261 and 1265 in Gyoda, Saitama, carved with an Amida triad and Jizo, a Historic Site since 1928.

Completed in 1731, the Minuma Tsusenbori is a timber lock canal in Saitama. Four locks bridged a three-metre drop so grain boats could reach Edo, now reconstructed.

At Yoshimi Hyakuana in Saitama, a highland moss grows inside ancient Kofun-era tombs, glowing faint gold-green as lens-like cells in its protonema catch the light.

A square burial mound of the early fifth century in Tsu, Mie, Akeai Kofun has platforms projecting from two opposite sides, a form seen at very few Japanese sites.

After the 1959 typhoon felled trees on Mt. Asama, Heian-era sutra cylinders and engraved mirrors came to light. Some forty mounds mark this burial site above Ise.

The Nara-period seat of Ise Province in Suzuka, Mie, a Historic Site since 2002, whose office platforms survive almost at their original height.

At Oike Shotaku marsh in Yokkaichi, cold-climate sweet gale meets warm-climate flora in one lowland wetland with carnivorous plants. A Natural Monument since 1952.

Off the Kihoku coast of Mie Prefecture, the uninhabited island of Ōshima is cloaked in warm-temperate evergreen forest, the northern limit of the bird's-nest fern.

The Onigajo fern colony, in the mountains of Minami-Ise, grows on shaded rock walls above a clear stream. Listed since 1928, it shelters ferns rare this far north.

Hidden deep in the mountains of Mie Prefecture, the Kitabatake Clan Residence Garden is a stroll-style pond garden created around 1530 by Hosokawa Takakuni, deputy of the Muromachi shogun. Designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty and Historic Site, it is celebrated as one of the Three Great Warrior Gardens of Japan alongside the Ichijodani Asakura Garden in Fukui and the former Shurin-ji Garden in Shiga. Features include the distinctive rice-character-shaped pond and the Confucius Stone of the dry landscape arrangement.

Designated a National Natural Monument in 1936, this rare wild iris colony in Meiwa Town, Mie Prefecture, blooms with around 3,000 deep-violet flowers each late May to mid-June. Once admired by Ise pilgrims and tied to the ancient land of the Saio imperial princesses, the site preserves the wild ancestor of the Japanese iris through dedicated community-led conservation.

The complete kokuhō catalogue — browse by prefecture, period, and category.

Nationwide jūyō bunkazai — architecture, sculpture, painting, crafts, and documents.

UNESCO-inscribed cultural and natural sites across the archipelago.