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

Discover Ryugu Cave (Ryugu-Dōketsu), a 60-meter lava tube in Aokigahara Sea of Trees in Fujikawaguchiko, Yamanashi. Designated a Natural Monument in 1929, this mystical cavern enshrines the water goddess Toyotama-hime and is one of the eight sacred sites of the Fuji-kō pilgrimage.

Kōjō-in Garden, a National Place of Scenic Beauty and Historic Site in the precincts of Mii-dera in Otsu, Shiga, is a Momoyama-period pond-viewing garden laid out around 1601. Its pond extends right to the veranda of the National Treasure Kōjō-in Kyakuden, dissolving the boundary between architecture and water. A tortoise island, stone bridge, night-mooring stones, and a hillside dry-waterfall arrangement showcase early-17th-century garden artistry. Open only by advance reservation for special viewing.

Discover Kongorinji Myojuin Garden, a nationally designated Place of Scenic Beauty in Shiga Prefecture. Three exquisite gardens from the Momoyama to mid-Edo periods surround this Tendai temple, one of the famed Koto Sanzan trio near Lake Biwa.

The Shigaraki Palace Ruins in Kōka City, Shiga Prefecture, preserve the remains of Emperor Shōmu's 8th-century imperial capital — the very place where Japan's Great Buddha was first conceived before being realized at Tōdai-ji in Nara. This National Historic Site features 335 original Nara-period foundation stones, over 7,000 wooden tablets, and rare Man'yōshū poetry inscriptions. Combined with Shigaraki's renowned ceramic heritage, it offers an unforgettable journey into Japan's Tenpyō-era culture.

Discover the Gansanken and Rantei Gardens at Daitsuji Temple in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture. These nationally designated Places of Scenic Beauty feature Edo-period dry landscape and pond gardens with borrowed scenery of Mt. Ibuki, alongside masterpiece paintings by Kano Sanraku, Kano Sansetsu, and Maruyama Okyo.

Chausuyama Kofun is a 122-meter keyhole-shaped burial mound on a ridge above Lake Biwa, built around 1,600 years ago and designated a National Historic Site in 1921.

A National Historic Site since 2020, the Nagahara and Iba Goten in Shiga are remains of palaces used exclusively by the Tokugawa shoguns on the road to Kyoto.

A 4.48-meter granite tahōtō, dated by inscription to 1241, stands on Mount Bodaiji in Konan, Shiga, with carved Jizō and Enma stones at the lost Shōbodai-ji temple.

Hyakusai-ji's grounds in Higashiomi, Shiga, a National Historic Site since 2008, hold 200 terraced ruins of a mountain temple Oda Nobunaga burned in 1573.

At the foot of Mt. Hiei, the 400,000-square-meter precincts of Hiyoshi Taisha hold two National Treasure halls, ancient stone bridges, and Shinto-Buddhist roots.

A national Place of Scenic Beauty in Maibara, this waterless garden centers on a stone waterfall, viewed from a shoin moved from the Azai clan's Odani Castle.

The Minami-Shiga-cho Temple Ruins in Otsu mark a 7th-century temple near the short-lived Otsu capital, with a pagoda foundation stone and a scorpion-pattern tile.

Japan's westernmost hananoki maple and a National Natural Monument in Higashiomi, Shiga. Its hollow trunk fell in 2010, yet it still flowers crimson each April.

A ginkgo at Ryōtoku-ji temple in Maibara bears its seeds along its leaf edges. A National Natural Monument since 1929, it is one of only seven such trees in Japan.

Designated a National Natural Monument in 2012, the Pyroclastic Flow Deposits at Natsui Coast in Shibushi City, Kagoshima Prefecture, expose roughly one kilometre of nearly vertical, 50-metre-high sea cliffs of consolidated volcanic ash. The deposits were laid down some 22,000 to 30,000 years ago by the Ito Pyroclastic Flow from the Aira Caldera, the colossal eruption that gave southern Kyushu its signature Shirasu plateaus. Welded portions of the flow survive as offshore islets and small capes, creating a miniature ria-style coast — an open-air textbook of southern Kyushu's volcanic past.

The habitat of Podostemaceae plants in the Anraku and Mae Rivers of Shibushi City, Kagoshima Prefecture. Designated a National Natural Monument in 2010, this site marks the northernmost distribution of this remarkable plant family in Asia. Discover flowering plants that cling to bedrock like moss and witness the rare coexistence of two distinct genera in a single river.

Discover Sumiyoshi Shell Mound, a nationally designated historic site on Okinoerabu Island, Kagoshima. This Late Jōmon to Early Yayoi settlement reveals the unique culture of the Central Ryukyu Islands through coral limestone dwellings and diverse marine artifacts.

Discover the Tachikiri and Yokomine archaeological sites on Tanegashima Island, Kagoshima — home to Japan's oldest known pit traps and 35,000-year-old stone-cooking hearths that rewrite our understanding of Paleolithic life.

On the eastern shore of Tanegashima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture, two designated mangrove forests — the Adake River in Nakatane Town and the Kunigami-Minato River in Nishinoomote City — mark the natural northern limit of mangrove distribution in Asia. Composed entirely of cold-tolerant Kandelia obovata (Mehirugi), the heritage protects two strikingly contrasting forms of the same species: the wind-stunted dwarf trees of the Adake River and the towering ten-meter-plus mangroves of the sheltered Kunigami-Minato valley.

Tucked into the wooded slopes of Mt. Kurinodake in Yusui Town, Kagoshima, this site marks the southernmost point in Japan where the Higan-zakura cherry (botanically Edohigan) grows naturally in the wild. Designated a National Natural Monument in 1923, the roughly 60-hectare grove blooms in delicate pinks and whites from late March to early April. As a major site of phytogeographical significance, it offers a rare encounter with the wild ancestor species behind Japan's beloved cherry blossom culture.

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.