Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

The Nakawa Shoten Shikomi-gura in Ikeda, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture, is a Meiji-era fermentation storehouse registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Part of a brewery founded in 1802, this wooden structure features a distinctive log-frame roof creating a vast interior space. Home to the award-winning sake brand Imakomachi, the site offers brewery tours and serves as a gateway to Shikoku's scenic Iya Valley and Oboke Gorge.

A rare two-story wooden lantern above Tokushima's Yoshino River, built 1884. It packs full temple-hall carpentry — fan rafters, cusped windows, kara-hafu gable — into a 15-square-meter structure registered nationally in 2011.

Built in 1896 at the top of Mount Hōju in western Tokushima, Hashikuraji's Temizuya stands at the head of the 278-step Heart Sutra staircase, directly in front of the Honden. Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in October 2011.

Discover Hiuradō, a registered cultural property built in 1788 in Tsurugi Town, Tokushima. The 26th station of the Haba-Shikoku miniature pilgrimage offers serene mountain views, ornate carvings, and centuries of folk faith.

Hikiji-do is a small wooden hall built in 1928 in Tsurugi Town, Tokushima Prefecture. As the 36th sacred site of the Habashikoku 88-site pilgrimage—a regional miniature of the famous Shikoku circuit—it preserves a local Buddhist tradition. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2017, the hall is notable for its hipped roof and distinctive front porch formed by an extended roofline.

Discover the Hyakunen-gura Smokestack in Miyoshi City, Tokushima — a 9.6-meter brick chimney built in 1922 that once served a local sake brewery. Inscribed with the historic brand name Gishi-shin, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property stands as a quiet witness to Japan's regional industrial heritage.

Standing at the confluence of the Yoshino and Iya rivers in Miyoshi City, Tokushima, the Hyakunengura Former Sake Brewery is a large wooden two-story building completed in 1922. Recognized as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2010, it is celebrated for its luminous, vertically-oriented interior and now serves as a venue for antique displays and live music events.

Completed in 1921, Matsusaka Tunnel in Mugi Town, Tokushima Prefecture, is recognized as Japan's oldest surviving cast-in-place concrete road tunnel. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it stands as the centerpiece of the 2-kilometer Uchizuma Hydrangea Road, where 4,000 hydrangeas bloom each June.

Set within the precinct of Manpukuji, a Koyasan Shingon temple deep in the mountains of Naka Town, Tokushima Prefecture, the Manpukuji Storehouse is a finely preserved two-story earthen-walled (dozō-zukuri) building from the late Edo period. Its carefully applied white plaster and rare 'pine fin' gable ornament reveal the craftsmanship of provincial Japan, and the small structure has been registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan since 2005. We introduce this hidden architectural gem along with the spectacular natural scenery that surrounds it.

Tucked within an 800-year-old Shingon temple in Naka Town, the Manpuku-ji Bell Tower is a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Explore its history, serene setting, and the surrounding natural wonders of rural Tokushima.

Deep in the mountains of Tokushima Prefecture stands Manpukuji, a Kōyasan Shingon temple founded in 1186. Within its quiet precinct sits a small Chinjudō, a guardian-deity hall enshrining the kami who protects the temple. Registered in 2005 as a National Tangible Cultural Property alongside the Main Hall, bell tower, and storehouse, this modest structure preserves the living memory of shinbutsu-shūgō — Japan's centuries-old fusion of Buddhist and Shinto worship — in a rustic, regionally rooted architectural setting.

Discover the Renkoji Temple Sanmon Gate in Ishii, Tokushima Prefecture—a nationally registered tangible cultural property blending Zen and Japanese architectural styles from the late Edo period.

Discover Wadanoya Honkan Shimomune, a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property at the foot of Mt. Bizan in Tokushima, where the traditional Taki no Yakimochi has been crafted for over 400 years using the historic Kinryusui spring water.

Built in 1908 with a donation from the British Miners' Mission, Ashio Christian Church is the only surviving early church in what was once Japan's leading copper-mining town. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2014, this small wooden chapel preserves the spiritual life of the miners who powered Japan's industrial rise.

Located in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, the Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Museum (former Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Exchange) preserves the legacy of Japan's first private telephone network, installed in 1886. This single-story wooden building, built in 1951 to house the relocated Mato Exchange, is the only surviving telephone exchange of the Ashio Copper Mine and was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2016. Manual switchboards and historic telephones on display offer a window into Japan's modern communications history.

Built around 1907, the back gate of the Iizuka new residence is timber with a pantile gabled roof. Though at the rear, it is large and finely built.

Built of granite around 1907, the Iizuka new residence front gate has tile-roofed board fences on stone bases. Its tall single-stone posts signal the family's rank.

The Shintaku main house of the Iizuka residence in Bato, built around 1907, shows an early modern feel in its orderly plan and refined reception rooms.

The courtyard gate of the Iizuka new residence, built around 1908, links storehouse and main house, enclosing an inner garden behind openwork lattice fences.

A two-story dozo built in 1908 behind the Iizuka main house, this storehouse was plastered even over its timber for fire safety. It is now a loft-style guest room.