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

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.

Explore the Karatsu Matsuura Tomb Group, a nationally designated historic site in Saga, Japan. Discover Yayoi-period dolmens and jar burials at Hayamajiri, Otomo, Morita, and Sakuranobaba — ancient gateways between Japan and the Korean Peninsula.

A nationally designated Historic Site in Ogawa Town, Saitama Prefecture, the Shimosato-Aoyama Itabi Production Site is the confirmed primary production center for Musashi-type itabi — medieval Buddhist stone memorial tablets made from green chlorite schist. With 19 identified quarrying and processing sites spanning the Kamakura through Sengoku periods, this remarkable archaeological landscape reveals the complete production chain from raw stone extraction to semi-finished memorial tablets that were distributed throughout the Kanto region.

The Minamikawara Stone Stupas, a nationally designated historic site at Kanpukuji Temple in Gyoda City, Saitama Prefecture, comprise two large Kamakura-period itabi stone tablets dating from 1261 and 1265. Carved from green chlorite schist with exquisite Buddhist imagery including the Amida Trinity and Jizo Bodhisattva, these 760-year-old monuments offer a rare glimpse into medieval Japanese faith and artistry, enriched by a romantic samurai legend from the Genpei War.

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.

Explore the Ise Kokufu ruins in Suzuka, Mie Prefecture — a nationally designated historic site preserving the Nara-period provincial government complex of ancient Ise Province, with remarkably intact building foundations and roof tiles.

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.

Explore the Nakamura River Nekogigi Habitat in Matsusaka, Mie Prefecture — a nationally designated Natural Monument protecting one of Japan's rarest endemic freshwater fish. Learn about the Nekogigi catfish, conservation efforts, and how to visit this pristine river ecosystem.

Discover the Higashi-Akuragawa Inunashi Habitat in Yokkaichi, Mie Prefecture—a nationally designated Natural Monument protecting one of Japan's rarest wild pear species, Pyrus calleryana, first scientifically documented in 1902.

Discover Ichinosawa Cave in Yamagata, a National Historic Site where Japan's earliest pottery was unearthed. Trace the dawn of Jomon culture through this ancient mountain shelter.