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

Discover the Ubundoru Yaeyama Palm Colony, a designated National Natural Monument hidden deep in the Iriomote Island jungle. Around 1,769 endemic palms tower above the Nakama River, forming one of only three wild populations of this Yaeyama-exclusive species on Earth.

The Enkakuji Temple Ruins in Shuri, Naha, preserve the footprint of the head temple of Rinzai Zen Buddhism in the Ryukyu Kingdom and the mortuary temple of the Second Shō Dynasty. Founded in 1494 by King Shō Shin to honor his late father King Shō En and modeled on Engaku-ji of Kamakura, the great seven-hall complex was almost entirely lost in the 1945 Battle of Okinawa. The surviving Hōjō-bashi stone bridge (a National Important Cultural Property), with its exquisite Ming-influenced relief carvings, the restored main gate, and the recently rebuilt Sanmon gate together evoke the dignity of this royal Zen sanctuary. Designated a National Historic Site on May 15, 1972, the very day Okinawa was returned to Japan, the ruins are a quietly powerful highlight of any visit to Shuri Castle.

On the northern shore of Oike, a karst lake at the heart of remote Minami-Daito Island in Okinawa, a small grove of Ohirugi mangroves grows in fresh inland water — far from the brackish estuaries where the species normally thrives. Designated a National Natural Monument of Japan in 1975, this rare "inland-locked" mangrove community is a living record of the island's geological uplift from coral reef to land. A wooden boardwalk leads visitors through this remarkable ecosystem, found nowhere else in such form.

Discover Katsuren Castle Ruins, a UNESCO World Heritage gusuku in Uruma City, Okinawa. Famed for its sweeping stone walls, panoramic Pacific views, and the legendary 15th-century lord Amawari who built a maritime trading empire.

Designated a National Historic Site in 1972, the Kabira Shell Mound on Ishigaki Island is the founding site of prehistoric research in Japan's Sakishima Islands. First surveyed by Torii Ryūzō in 1904, the two hills of Nakamamori and Shishimori yielded 14th–16th-century earred pottery and Chinese ceramics, telling a story of Yaeyama's distinctive culture and its ties to the continent.

The Kyan Coast and Arasaki Coast in Itoman City, Okinawa, was designated in 2012 as both a National Place of Scenic Beauty and a National Natural Monument. Cliffs of Ryukyu limestone rising about 30 meters above the sea, surf-bench formations carved by relentless waves, the legendary boulder known as Kasakanjā, and a remarkable zonal distribution of coastal vegetation together form a unique landscape at the southern tip of Okinawa Island. Within the Okinawa Battlefield Quasi-National Park, it offers visitors both natural grandeur and a moving sense of historical memory.

Discover Gushihara Shell Mound, a nationally designated historic site on Ie Island, Okinawa, where 5,000 years of shell artifact culture and ancient maritime trade between Okinawa and Kyushu come alive.

The Nakabaru Site preserves a 2,500-year-old Jōmon village with limestone-walled pit dwellings on Okinawa's Ikei Island. Designated a national historic site in 1986.

A 2-km limestone cape at Miyako Island's eastern tip. National Place of Scenic Beauty (2007), with coral reefs, wind-shaped plants and a climbable lighthouse.

Discover the Minamidaito Island East Coast Plant Community, a nationally designated Natural Monument in Okinawa. Home to rare Borojino spurge and coastal plants found nowhere else, this coral limestone reef landscape offers a unique botanical experience on one of Japan's most remote islands.

Japan's largest open-air travertine terraces—about 300 limestone pools formed over 3,600 years by the Tidagā spring—step down a sea cliff on Miyako Island's coast.

An 1819 Ryukyuan karesansui in Ishigaki by the Shuri master Gusukuma Peechin: five coral-limestone hills descend past a dry waterfall. Place of Scenic Beauty.

On a Yomitan dune, this national historic site yielded Okinawa's first stone-cist graves and Yayoi pottery in 1977, proving Kyushu contact two thousand years ago.

A 14th-15th century Ryukyuan gusuku on a limestone ridge in Onna, Okinawa. Said to be the first stronghold of warlord Gosamaru; National Historic Site since 2008.

The Ayaori Shinden Site in Tono City, Iwate Prefecture, is a National Historic Site preserving an early Jomon settlement from around 6,000 years ago. Designated in 2002, it features 17 large pit-dwellings arranged radially around a central plaza, fifty exquisite talc slit ear ornaments (one of the largest such finds in Japan), and a remarkable assemblage of Daigi-style pottery. Discover the site's archaeological significance, the artifacts now displayed at the Tono Machinaka Doki-Doki-kan museum, and the legendary cultural landscape of Tono.

Discover the seven natural wonders of Iwate that inspired beloved poet and storyteller Miyazawa Kenji — from the saddle-shaped Mt. Kurakake to the legendary 'English Coast' along the Kitakami River.

Ryūsendō Cave (Iwaizumi Yūketsu) in Iwate Prefecture is one of Japan's three great limestone caves, designated a National Natural Monument in 1938 along with its rare bat colonies. Discover the cave's famous Dragon Blue underground lakes and the five species of bats that share this protected subterranean world.

Hidden in the wooded hills of northern Iwate, surviving sections of the Oshu Kaido — one of Edo Japan's five great highways — remain almost exactly as 17th-century travelers knew them. With 8.86 km of unpaved roadway and four pristine ichirizuka milestone mounds protected as a National Historic Site since 2010 (the first time a Five Highways route itself received this designation), this 24 km corridor through Ichinohe and Iwate-machi offers a rare immersive walk through samurai-era Japan, complete with a Natural Monument cliff face and traces of the Meiji Emperor's tour.

Discover Ōsuzukami Site, a National Historic Site in Ōshū City, Iwate, where 62 large pit dwellings ring a central plaza in a 5,000-year-old Late Early Jōmon village. Saved during dam construction, this site reveals the origin of Japan's classic ring settlements and the daily life of prehistoric Tōhoku.

Located on a quiet hilltop overlooking Ōfunato Bay in Iwate Prefecture, the Ōbora Shell Mound is a Final Jōmon fishing village dating from roughly 3,000 to 2,200 years ago. The pottery excavated by Tohoku Imperial University in 1925 became the type sequence — Ōbora B, BC, C1, C2, A, and A' — that still anchors the chronology of Final Jōmon ceramics across Tohoku and southern Hokkaido. Designated a National Historic Site in 2001, the site invites travelers to walk the ria coast where Japanese archaeology came of age.