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

Within the wooded grounds of Kazuguri Inari Shrine in Hanamaki City, Iwate Prefecture, grows the Kazukuri—a mutant Japanese chestnut whose flower spikes are entirely female. Designated as a National Natural Monument in 1927, this is the only place on Earth where this unique strain still survives in its native habitat, preserved through the long-standing efforts of a local preservation society and the city of Hanamaki. A quiet spot where botany, faith, and conservation gently meet.

Adjacent to Mōtsū-ji Temple in Hiraizumi, Iwate, the Former Kanjizaiō-in Garden is the restored remains of a Pure Land garden founded in the 12th century by the wife of Fujiwara no Motohira. A National Place of Scenic Beauty and a UNESCO World Heritage component asset, it features Maizurugaike Pond, dramatic aramiso stone arrangements, and an exquisite cascade composition. The site is freely open to the public as a tranquil historical park.

Kunohe Castle Ruins in Ninohe City, Iwate Prefecture, was the site of the final battle in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's 1591 campaign that brought all of Japan under a single ruler and ended the Sengoku era. Naturally protected on three sides by rivers, the site preserves the oldest castle stonework in Tōhoku, vast dry moats, and Oda-Toyotomi-style gateways. Designated a National Historic Site in 1935 and selected as one of the Continued 100 Famous Castles of Japan, it offers a uniquely layered experience of medieval and early-modern Japanese castle history.

Located in Sumita Town, Iwate Prefecture, the Kuriki Iron Works Ruins preserve the remains of a private ironworks that operated from 1881 to 1920. Designated a National Historic Site in 2021, it is the only surviving example in Japan of a complete small-to-medium scale blast furnace ironworks compound from the Meiji and Taisho periods, holding exceptional industrial archaeological value. Two blast furnace bases, office ruins, water channels, and casting factory remains lie quietly in the Tane-ga-hara highlands beloved by author Miyazawa Kenji.

The Cross-Bedding of Namiuchi Pass, located along the historic Ōshū Kaidō highway in Ichinohe, Iwate Prefecture, features beautifully striped sandstone layers formed in a shallow sea approximately 15 million years ago. As Japan's only nationally designated Natural Monument for cross-lamination, it combines exceptional geological value—including abundant marine fossils—with literary connections to the famous poetic place-name Sue no Matsuyama and the history of Emperor Meiji's imperial visits.

At Hatten Site in Kitakami, Iwate, clay nose, mouth and ear fragments hint at Jomon ritual masks beside a circular hall rebuilt nearly ten times on the same plot.

Mt. Hayachine in Iwate harbors Sakhalin spruce 250 km south of its range. A glacial relict colony of 3,500 trees, designated a National Natural Monument in 1975.

Hideshima, an uninhabited cliff-walled island off Iwate, hosts the only Band-rumped Storm Petrel colony confirmed in the western Pacific. A 1935 Natural Monument.

A medieval manor for Chūson-ji's sutra repository in Iwate, Honedera preserves a rural landscape matching two 13th-century pictorial maps held at the temple.

A Special Natural Monument in Hachimantai, Iwate: a four-kilometer andesite plain from an 18th-century eruption of Mt. Iwate, still nearly bare of trees today.

A National Historic Site in Iwate. Yanaginogosho is the excavated seat of the Ōshū Fujiwara, identified with the Hiraizumi-no-tachi burned by Yoritomo in 1189.

Five mountain forts ringing the Furukawa Basin in Gifu, designated a national historic site in 2024 for layered work by the Anekoji, Miki, and Kanamori clans.

Discover the Ema Clan Castle Ruins in Hida City, Gifu — a National Historic Site featuring a restored samurai residence, medieval Japanese garden, and a network of mountain castles from the Muromachi and Sengoku periods.

The Kanō Castle Ruins in Gifu City preserve a flatland castle commissioned by Tokugawa Ieyasu after the Battle of Sekigahara as a stronghold against western powers. Designated a National Historic Site in 1983, the surviving honmaru with its distinctive convex 'demasugata' enclosure is recognized as the prototype of the early Edo-period 'Kanō-style' plan. Stone walls, earthen ramparts, and moat traces remain remarkably intact, offering visitors a tangible link to the strategic vision of the early Tokugawa shogunate.

The Great Cedar of Kabuchi Shrine, growing within the precincts of Kabuchi Shrine in Hichiso Town, Gifu Prefecture, is an awe-inspiring Japanese cedar estimated at around 850 years old, with a trunk circumference of 10 meters and a height of approximately 43 meters. Designated a National Natural Monument in 1930, this resilient giant survived a devastating debris flow in 1910 and continues to thrive at the foot of sacred Mt. Mihagi, inviting visitors into a world steeped in myth, history, and the quiet power of nature.

Tucked into the eastern foothills of Mount Ikeda in Gifu Prefecture, Kamagatani is a designated National Place of Scenic Beauty and Natural Monument where roughly 1,500 to 2,000 cherry trees of multiple species bloom along a two-kilometer ravine each spring. Viewed from afar, the cascading petals appear as a soft pink mist drifting down the mountain — the very phenomenon that gave this hidden sanctuary its evocative name.

Discover Garyū no Sakura in Takayama, Gifu — a National Natural Monument said to be over 1,100 years old, whose sprawling branches resemble a reclining dragon and burst into pale-pink Edohigan blossoms each April.

Rising behind the main hall of Kuzu Hachimangu Shrine in the mountain town of Hagiwara, Gero City, Gifu Prefecture, the Husband-and-Wife Cedars (Meoto-sugi) are a paired male-and-female giant of approximately 1,200 to 1,500 years of age. The Male Cedar measures 10.7 m around at chest height and stands about 25 m tall, while the Female Cedar measures about 8.9 m around and rises 24.7 m. Designated a National Natural Monument in 1928, these twin trees stand alongside the shrine's nationally important medieval main hall and worship hall as living witnesses to over a millennium of Hida history.

Set on a quiet hilltop in Ena, Gifu Prefecture, the ruins of Shoge Haiji preserve the foundations of an ancient Buddhist temple founded in the early 8th century and lost to fire in the late 9th. Its main hall featured a radial column arrangement found nowhere else in surviving Japanese architecture or in any other excavated site, with only the miniature Tamamushi Shrine at Hōryū-ji as a parallel. Excavated artifacts—including Nara three-color glazed pottery and iron wind-bells—reveal direct ties to the imperial court, earning the site designation as a National Historic Site in 2001.

Deep in the primeval forest of Hakusan National Park in Gifu Prefecture, Shiramizu Falls plunges 67.4 meters down a sheer columnar-jointed andesite cliff formed by Mount Hakusan's lava flow some 2,200 years ago. Designated a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 2024 — the first waterfall in Gifu to receive this honor — the falls dazzle visitors with their distinctive milky-white waters. Discover its history, highlights, and access details.

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.