Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

At the south end of the small-shrine row at Imamiya Shrine in Kyoto, the late Edo Hiyoshisha splits its tiny sanctum into two rooms and dresses its canopy richly.

Rebuilt in 1902 by Ito Heizaemon, the offering hall, worship pavilion and corridors of Imamiya Shrine in Kyoto frame the sanctuary with carved gables.

The Imamiya Shrine Main Hall in Kyoto was rebuilt in 1902 by Ito Heizaemon after a fire; its gabled copper roof and deep front canopy reach out gracefully.

The late Meiji earthen wall round the Imamiya Shrine Main Hall in Kyoto runs 65.4 metres, with a small north gate and five white lines said to mark top rank.

Built around 1694 in a corner of Imamiya Shrine in Kyoto, the small Munakatasha stands on a stone base carved with a catfish and packs in varied bracketing.

The 1926 Imamiya Shrine Tower Gate in Kyoto is a two-storey gate whose tiered brackets and carefully tapered proportions give a tall form a calm, settled outline.

Built in 1926 beside the Tower Gate of Imamiya Shrine in Kyoto, the West Corridor gives a modern building the sweeping eaves and gables of far older shrine design.

Built in 1926 beside the Tower Gate of Imamiya Shrine in Kyoto, the East Corridor gathers its finest work in the gables, with medieval-style struts and brackets.

The 1694 Wakamiyasha Worship Hall at Imamiya Shrine in Kyoto is a one-bay open pavilion with a coffered ceiling, a small echo of the shrine's main worship hall.

Built in 1694, the Imamiya Shrine Wakamiyasha Main Hall in Kyoto, a shrine for the blessing of children, joins two Kasuga-style roofs with ridges linked in an H.

The 1694 gate and openwork fence of Wakamiyasha at Imamiya Shrine in Kyoto enclose the sanctuary with a stepped tiled gate roof and 26 metres of diamond lattice.

The worship hall and middle hall of Ura Shrine, the cult site of the Urashima legend in Ine, Kyoto. Built in 1884 in the warihaiden split-hall form, its facade is anchored by a cloud-and-dragon panel carved by a master of the Nakai Gonji lineage of Tanba woodcarvers. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2014.

Discover Ura Shrine's Main Hall in Ine, Kyoto — a Meiji-era thatched Shinmei-style sanctuary registered as an Important Cultural Property, standing at the legendary home of Urashima Tarō, Japan's oldest folktale.

Tucked away in central Kyoto's Shimogyo Ward, Uronza is a beautifully preserved kyo-machiya townhouse built in 1897 by the Nagaoka family of master carpenters from Fukui Prefecture as their own residence. With its first-floor degoshi lattice, second-floor mushiko-mado window, and sukiya-style parlor, it stands as a fine example of the modern Kyoto machiya. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2008 and given two additional city-level designations, Uronza now operates as a small guesthouse, offering the rare experience of staying overnight in a 120-year-old officially protected building.

Standing on Shijo-dori in Kyoto's celebrated Gion district, Enma (Former Murai Bank Gion Branch) is a 1924 reinforced-concrete bank building designed by Yoshitake Choichi, the in-house architect of tobacco magnate Murai Kichibei. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, it preserves the American-trained classical-revival aesthetics of the Taisho era, including a finely detailed parapet balustrade, and is easily seen on any walk between Yasaka Shrine and Hanamikoji.

Rising from the wooded foothills of Ayabe in northern Kyoto, Oomoto Mirokuden is a vast 789-tatami sanctuary completed in 1953 on the site of an earlier hall lost to wartime suppression. A registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan since 2014, its pillar-less interior, layered copper-shingled irimoya roof, and surrounding gardens make it one of the great twentieth-century religious buildings of Japan.

Kaga Shōtarō's Tudor half-timber former garage beneath Mount Tennōzan, registered as a Cultural Property and now operated as a free rest house by Kyoto Prefecture on the wooded grounds of Ōyamazaki Sansō.

A 1934 bracketed gate fronting a Kitashirakawa villa by Fujii Koji, with a slatted transom, copper roof and a boulder set in its stone floor. Registered 2020.

Late Edo town house of the Ogawa Bunsai potters on Gojozaka, Kyoto, with a projecting-beam front, two kinds of upper lattice and an alcoved room behind.

Small late Edo storehouse at the Ogawa Bunsai potters' house on Gojozaka, Kyoto, two bays square and carefully plastered, adding charm to the back garden.