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

The Aku Site in Hara Village, Nagano, is a 7,000-year-old Early Jomon settlement and ceremonial complex featuring Japan's oldest known annular stone arrangement and a central standing stone aligned with sacred Mt. Tateshina. Preserved beneath the Chuo Expressway, its remarkable artifacts can be viewed at the nearby Yatsugatake Museum of Art.

Mato-iwa, the "Target Rock" of Mount Azumaya, is a National Natural Monument straddling the Nagano-Gunma border at an elevation of around 1,770 meters. This spectacular andesite dike extends roughly 400 meters along the ridge, with its most prominent screen-shaped section reaching up to 15 meters in height. Its remarkable hexagonal columnar jointing and the natural window at its center, said to mark where the medieval warlord Minamoto no Yoritomo's arrow pierced the stone, draw geology enthusiasts and history lovers alike. Reached by a 30–40 minute walk from the Torii Pass trailhead within Joshin'etsu-Kogen National Park, it offers a rare encounter with both volcanic geology and samurai-era legend.

Set in the wooded hills of Matsushiro in Nagano City, the Omuro Kofun Group is a National Historic Site of more than 500 burial mounds built between the 5th and 8th centuries. It is Japan's largest concentration of stone-piled tumuli (tsumiishizuka) and rare 'joined-hands' stone chambers, offering a striking window onto early cross-sea exchange with the Korean Peninsula.

Discover Ono no Shidareguri Jiseichi in Tatsuno Town, Nagano—Japan's largest natural grove of mutant weeping chestnut trees. Designated a National Natural Monument in 1920, this 3.4-hectare hillside hosts around 800 gnarled, umbrella-shaped chestnut trees once feared by villagers as the dwelling of tengu mountain spirits.

The Gonga Kanga Site in Iida holds the buried offices and storehouses of the ancient Ina district government, in use from the late 7th to early 10th century.

A National Natural Monument in Nagano's Shiga Kogen, where Genji fireflies live at 1,580–1,620 m—Japan's highest altitude for the species, fed by hot-spring warmth.

Seven Takashima Domain lords lie beneath 3-meter stone markers above Lake Suwa, the founder in a vermilion mausoleum nearby. National Historic Site, 2017.

Takato Castle Ruins in Ina, Nagano keeps the dry moats and ramparts of a Sengoku-era Takeda fortress, a rare surviving domain school, and 1,500 famed cherry trees.

In Neba, Nagano, the Great Cedar of Tsukize is Nagano's largest tree, about 13.8 m around and some 1,800 years old, a Natural Monument twice saved by its village.

Komoro's Tera-no-ura Stone Age Dwelling Site, a Late Jomon settlement excavated in 1930 below Mount Asama, was designated a National Historic Site in 1933.

The Haji Momoi Abandoned Temple Site in Yazu, Tottori, a Historic Site since 1931, is a late 7th-century temple whose Hokiji-style layout is almost fully known.

At Hahaki Shrine in Kurayoshi, a primeval grove of 400-year-old chinquapin trees rises 20 meters above the path. A National Natural Monument designated in 1934.

The Hoki Kokubunji Temple Ruins in Kurayoshi, Tottori, a Historic Site since 1974, keep the halls, pagoda site and earth banks of a Nara-period provincial temple.

On a ridge south of Matsugami village in Tottori, this shrine grove protects a rare natural stand of sakaki, the evergreen tree central to Shinto ritual offerings.

Spreading across the hills of western Tottori Prefecture, the Mukibanda Site is one of Japan's largest Yayoi-period settlement sites, flourishing some 2,000 years ago. With reconstructed pit dwellings, distinctive four-corner-protruding burial mounds, and sweeping views over the Sea of Japan and Mount Daisen, this 152-hectare National Historic Site lets visitors step directly into an ancient San'in 'kuni.'

Discover Yonago Castle Ruins, a National Historic Site crowning Mount Minato in Tottori Prefecture. Once celebrated as the finest castle in the San'in region with its rare twin keeps, the site today offers majestic stone walls and a breathtaking 360-degree panorama of Lake Nakaumi, Mount Daisen, and the Sea of Japan.

Crowning Mount Tsurunoo (452m) in Wakasa, Tottori Prefecture, Wakasa Oniga-jo is a National Historic Site of Japan and one of the three great castles of former Inaba Province. Its layered ruins preserve the medieval earthworks of the Yabe clan, the early-modern stone walls built by the Kinoshita and Yamazaki lords, and the rare physical traces of the 1617 'one castle per province' demolition decree.

Carved directly into tuff bedrock in Matsue's Ou district, the five Abedani yokoana tombs feature distinctive hipped-roof ceilings rarely seen elsewhere in Japan.

In Yasugi, eastern Shimane, this Historic Site holds some of Japan's largest early-Kofun square tombs and the four-cornered Yayoi mounds that came before them.

This Ikoji Temple pond garden in Masuda, attributed to the painter-monk Sesshu Toyo, places a tortoise island in a crane-shaped pond. Nationally designated in 1928.

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.