Registered Monuments of Japan

Shiramizu Falls, located on the border of Taketa City (Oita) and Takamori Town (Kumamoto), is a magnificent cascade where countless white streams of water emerge from welded tuff cliffs formed by ancient Aso pyroclastic flows. Registered as a National Monument (Scenic Site) in 2007, this enchanting waterfall has been admired by feudal lords and literati since the Edo period. Its poetic name derives from the snow-white appearance of its waters — or perhaps from having 99 streams, one short of a hundred.

Nagoya's first park, opened in 1909 and registered as a Registered Monument in 2009, combining a formal Western garden with a Japanese stroll garden in the city centre.

On the dramatic cliffs of Izura in northern Ibaraki stands the former residence and garden of Okakura Tenshin (1862–1913), the thinker who shaped modern Japanese art. Visitors can see his self-designed home, the vermilion Hexagonal Hall (Rokkakudō) rebuilt after the 2011 tsunami, a moss-and-pine garden, and the sweeping Pacific bays of Daigoura and Shōgoura — a National Registered Monument of rare cultural and scenic value.

Tucked away in the historic post town of Takabu in Hitachiomiya City, Ibaraki, Yokoen is a pond-and-stroll garden created by sake brewer Okayama Sentaro in the mid-Meiji era. Modeled on Mito's famed Kobuntei pavilion at Kairakuen, the garden and its three-story Kiu-tei pavilion are designated nationally registered cultural properties.

The Tsukayama Brewery Garden in Nago, Okinawa, is an early Showa pond garden shaped like Okinawa Island and edged with northern limestone, registered in 2021.

Discover Hanandā in Yaese Town, Okinawa—a 30-meter natural bridge of Ryukyu limestone over the Shiramizu River, registered as a National Monument in 2021 and still used by villagers today.

Discover the Former Nambu Clan Villa Garden in Morioka, Iwate—a tranquil pond stroll garden tracing its roots to a 17th-century medicinal herb garden, beautifully preserved within a Meiji-era estate.

Nanshōsō Garden in Shimizu-chō, Morioka, is a pond-stroll garden built in 1885 as the private estate of the industrialist Segawa Yasugorō. Ingeniously incorporating the natural slope of the Kitakami River terrace, the garden is designed for two parallel modes of appreciation — seated viewing from the elevated Nanshō-no-Ma room of the main house, and a winding stroll around the two interconnected ponds. Registered as a National Monument in 2015, this lovingly preserved Meiji-era retreat continues to enchant visitors with its seasonal beauty, including the famous reflection of crimson maples on its polished wooden floors in autumn.

The Moriai Family Garden in Tsugaruishi, Miyako City, Iwate Prefecture, is an Edo-period pond appreciation garden created by the Sanriku region's leading merchant family. Completed in 1797 to receive the lord of the Nanbu domain and visited by the famed cartographer Inō Tadataka in 1801, it was registered as a national Registered Monument in 2012.

Held by the Miyazaki Prefectural Museum, the Kaku Hika Specimens are a collection of 760 plant, geological-mineralogical and animal specimens gathered and illustrated by Kaku Hika (1816-1894), one of the Three Great Herbalists of late Edo Japan. Registered as a National Registered Monument in 2010, the collection is a vital primary source bridging traditional Edo-era herbalism and the dawn of modern Japanese botany.

Hidden behind the gates of a 350-year-old hot spring inn in Yamaguchi City's Yudaonsen district, Matsudaya Hotel Garden is a Nationally Registered Place of Scenic Beauty designed around 1918 by Ogawa Jihei VII (Ueji), the master gardener who shaped modern Kyoto's most celebrated landscapes. One of the very few Ueji gardens west of Kyoto, it features a four-meter three-tiered waterfall, gently meandering streams, ponds, and stone lanterns. The inn itself was a key meeting place for the architects of the Meiji Restoration, including Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and Ito Hirobumi.

Ōmi Hakkei (Mii no Banshō) is one of the celebrated Eight Views of Ōmi, selected by the courtier Konoe Nobutada to capture the evening bell of Mii-dera echoing across Lake Biwa at sunset. Registered in 2009 as a national Registered Monument (Place of Scenic Beauty), the bell — cast in 1602 — is also counted among Japan's Three Famous Bells and the 100 Soundscapes of Japan. Discover the landscape that inspired Hiroshige and centuries of travellers.

Tucked away in Shiga Prefecture's historic Omi merchant town of Gokasho-Kondo, Shojukan Garden is a Nationally Registered Monument designed by the celebrated late-Edo to Meiji garden master Katsumoto Donketsu. This stroll-style dry landscape garden, opened to the public in 2023 alongside a 200-year-old merchant residence, features a famous heart-shaped Inome window and a rare chance to experience authentic Omi merchant heritage.

The Uematsu family garden beside the Tokaido in Numazu, Shizuoka, registered in 2012, a collection of rare plants with a greenhouse that Siebold praised in 1826.

Samurai estate in Matsushiro, Nagano: a 22-meter long-gate, a Taisho shoin, and a Kanda River-fed pond at the head of the castle town's sensui water network.

A National Registered Monument in Matsushiro, Nagano. Water from neighboring Zozan Shrine still flows through this Edo samurai garden's crescent pond and its working washing basin.

Ishitani Garden, set within the grounds of the Nationally Important Cultural Property Ishitani Residence in the post-town of Chizu in Tottori Prefecture, is one of the finest surviving examples of a wealthy modern merchant's garden in western Japan. An Edo-period pond garden combines with a dry landscape garden and lawn garden created from 1919 onward, together with intimate roji and inner courtyards, preserving the design vocabulary of late Meiji and Taisho-era estate gardens in remarkable completeness. Registered as a National Place of Scenic Beauty in 2008 and designated by Tottori Prefecture in 2010—the prefecture's first—it offers visitors a rare glimpse into the refined world of a great timber-merchant family.

Tucked away at the edge of Kurayoshi's white-walled storehouse district in Tottori, the Ogawa Family Garden (Kansuien) is a refined modern pond-stroll garden created between 1926 and 1929 for Ogawa Sadaichi, a leading industrialist of his era. Designed by the Kobe master gardener Tatsumi Takenosuke and centered on a faithful reproduction of the Kanden-an tea house in Matsue, it is among the largest private modern gardens in the San'in region. Registered as a National Monument in 2010 and open to visitors since November 2021.

Mount Mani, a 357 m Tendai sacred peak forming Maniji Temple's precinct in Tottori, was registered in 2016 for its boulder Oku-no-in and Tateiwa views of the sea.

Zaima Family Garden in Tsuwano is an 1899 townhouse garden whose far mound relays the view from the parlor to Mount Aono, registered as a monument in 2013.