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

Kōriyama Castle in Nara, a National Historic Site, preserves walls built partly from reused Buddhist statues and an inverted Jizō, remains of a Toyotomi power base.

About 700 burial mounds cover the Koseyama hills in Gose, Nara, forming Japan's largest cluster-tomb group, built between the mid-5th and late-6th centuries.

A late sixth-century round burial mound in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, just 350 meters west of Horyu-ji Temple. The unlooted tomb yielded a vermilion sarcophagus with two occupants and dazzling gilt bronze crowns, shoes, and saddle fittings now designated National Treasures. National Historic Site.

The Fujiwara-kyō Site in Kashihara, Nara—covering the great Suzaku Avenue and the Sakyō and Ukyō Seventh Avenue districts—preserves the southern heart of Japan's first true grid-planned capital, which served three sovereigns from 694 to 710. The 21-metre-wide central boulevard and the dense cluster of government office sites south of the palace document the moment when Japan adopted Chinese-style city planning. Today the area offers seasonal flower fields, sweeping views of the Yamato Three Mountains, and free museums.

Spanning roughly 120 hectares in northern Nara City, the Heijō Palace Site preserves the ceremonial and political heart of Japan's ancient capital from 710 to 784. Designated a Special Historic Site in 1952 and inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998 as a component of the Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara, the site features stunning reconstructed buildings—including the First Daigokuden, Suzakumon Gate, Daigokumon, and the Tōin Garden—that vividly evoke the grandeur of the Nara-period imperial capital.

Discover the East Palace Garden (Tōin Teien) of Heijō Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage component and Special Place of Scenic Beauty in Nara. Restored on its original 8th-century site, this elegant pond garden is considered the prototype of the Japanese garden tradition. Includes history, highlights, and visitor information. Free admission.

Quietly tucked into a residential corner of modern Nara City, the Heijo-kyo Sakyo Sanjo Nibo Palace Garden Site is a Nara-period garden built around 750 AD that lay buried and almost untouched for over 1,200 years until its rediscovery in 1975. Its graceful S-shaped pebble-lined pond was the setting for the elegant winding-stream poetry banquets of imperial nobles. As one of only three ancient gardens in Japan to hold both National Special Historic Site and National Special Place of Scenic Beauty designations, it offers a rare and authentic window into eighth-century courtly aesthetics.

The precincts of Hōkiji in Ikaruga, Nara, form a National Historic Site and part of the UNESCO World Heritage 'Buddhist Monuments in the Hōryū-ji Area.' Founded on the site of Prince Shōtoku's Okamoto Palace, the temple's three-story pagoda completed in 706 is Japan's oldest. Cosmos fields frame the ancient scene each autumn.

An early-Edo Place of Scenic Beauty at Nara's Hokke-ji, unfolding in three gardens. A hall and stones are said to come from the Kyoto court; iris bloom in May.

At the foot of Mount Miwa, the Makimuku Site preserves a 3rd-century building complex and 2,000 peach pits, central to the debate over Queen Himiko's Yamatai.

The Matsuyama West Gate Barrier, or Kuromon, is the sole survivor of Uda Matsuyama's castle town in Nara: a black early-1600s gate kept in its original spot.

Mii, a National Historic Site in Ikaruga, Nara, is an ancient well in the former grounds of Horinji temple, long linked by tradition to Prince Shotoku.

A 245-metre keyhole tomb in Gose, Nara, a Historic Site since 1921, the first great chieftain's tomb of southern Katsuragi, with a red-painted stone sarcophagus.

Inside Murō-ji's grounds in Nara, a shaded ravine holds warm-climate ferns from southern Japan growing at one northern edge of their range, protected since 1928.

A 224 m early-4th-century keyhole tomb in Sakurai, Nara, Mesuriyama yielded Japan's largest haniwa and a sealed side chamber holding over 680 ritual grave goods.

A 1932 Natural Monument on Kasugayama in Nara City, the habitat of the Loomis shijimi butterfly, which fed on evergreen oak here and is now said to be extinct.

Located in Himi City, Toyama Prefecture, Asahi Shell Mound is a National Historic Site celebrated as the place where Japan's first prehistoric dwelling floors with hearths were scientifically identified. Its rare marine-shell layers, the famous basket-shaped Jomon pottery, and a 16-centimeter jadeite ceremonial bead all illuminate Early-to-Middle Jomon life roughly 5,000 to 3,000 years ago, marking a turning point in the history of Japanese archaeology.

Discover the Iikubo Gourd Stones of Himi City, Toyama — a National Natural Monument since 1941. Learn about these rare gourd-shaped nodules, their fascinating geology, local legends, and where to view them.

Folded Cretaceous sandstone and shale on the Jinzu River in Toyama, a Natural Monument since 1941, now mostly under a reservoir with part visible across the river.

The Kōdōji Temple Ruins in Mihama, Fukui mark a temple a local clan founded in the late 7th century, traced by excavation from founding to abandonment around 900.