Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

A long late-Edo shed at the Ota brewery in Tatsuta, Ikaruga, linking the old kitchen to the inner storehouse. One side is open, the other a boundary wall.

The main house of the Ota sake brewery in Tatsuta, Ikaruga. A roof-tile inscription dates it to 1829, a rare benchmark for dating the region's town houses.

A late-Edo tea room at the Ota brewery in Tatsuta, Ikaruga, behind the main house across a courtyard. Its three-mat plan and crawl-in door reveal the family's wealth.

The largest building at the Ota brewery in Tatsuta, Ikaruga. This early-Meiji fermentation store on a stone base shows a long western wall and joins the south storehouse.

A large early-Meiji brewing storehouse at the Ota brewery in Tatsuta, Ikaruga. It links the living and brewing blocks and anchors the storehouses that shape the town.

Completed in 1933 and designed by master carpenter Nakagawa Kichijirō, the Former Ikoma Town Hall is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property featuring traditional Japanese architectural elements including irimoya-hafu gables and refined woodwork. Now the Ikoma Furusato Museum, this beautifully restored building showcases the rich heritage of Ikoma City.

Discover the Former Sixty-Eight Bank Yagi Branch in Kashihara, Nara — a 1928 Renaissance-inspired reinforced concrete landmark, now a French restaurant. Explore this Registered Tangible Cultural Property and its fascinating history.

Saho Kaikan, located on the campus of Nara Women's University, is an alumni hall built in 1928 to commemorate the wedding of Crown Prince Hirohito (later Emperor Shōwa). Designed by architect Iwasaki Heitarō, this two-story wooden building features a stately irimoya roof, a grand hall with a coffered ceiling, and refined tatami rooms with openwork transoms. It was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2005.

Discover the Jokyoji Temple Bulletin Board Shelter (Keijibansya), a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Nara. This early Showa-era structure stands on Japan's oldest shopping street and is connected to Ernest Fenollosa's historic lecture on preserving Japanese art.

Discover the Sanmon Gate of Jōkyō-ji Temple in Nara, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property from the late Edo period. This elegant yakuimon gate features exquisite carvings and stands on the historic Sanjō-dōri, where Ernest Fenollosa delivered his landmark lecture on preserving Japan's cultural heritage.

Tamaya Hanare Zashiki is a detached guest room of a former Edo-period inn standing before Taima-dera in Katsuragi, Nara. Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it offers visitors a chance to dine in a quiet, 170-year-old pilgrim's retreat surrounded by a courtyard garden.

Completed in 1926, the Nanto Bank Head Office is a Greek Revival masterpiece designed by Nagano Uheiji, a disciple of Tatsuno Kingo. Featuring distinctive sheep carvings on its Ionic columns, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property — Nara Prefecture's first — stands as a testament to Taisho-era modernization in the ancient capital.

The Hamoto Family Residence Main House, a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Yamatokoriyama, Nara Prefecture, is an early Meiji-period merchant townhouse featuring refined degoshi lattice windows, mushiko-mado, and exquisite interior joinery crafted by the grandfather of the renowned sashimono master Kawasaki Yūgen.

Discover the Akasofu Cylindrical Water Divider in Nanto City, Toyama — a 1949 Registered Tangible Cultural Property that uses siphon principles to fairly distribute irrigation water across the Tonami Plain.

Inamiya Butsudan-ten, a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1905 on Takaoka's historic Yamacho-suji, stands out with its distinctive Western-style facade featuring large arched windows adorned with cast-iron arabesque patterns. This Meiji-era Buddhist altar shop showcases a unique blend of Japanese and Western architecture, with an impressive interior atrium and gallery walkways.

Located within Fugan Canal Kansui Park in Toyama City, the Ushijima Lock Gate is a Panama Canal-style lock built around 1934. This civil engineering heritage once regulated water levels between the Fugan Canal and Itachi River to enable boat traffic, featuring wooden mitre gates and a monolithic concrete chamber that showcase early Showa-era craftsmanship. It was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2002.

The Ozawa Family Residence Storehouse in Aramachi, Namerikawa City, Toyama Prefecture, is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in the late Meiji period as a shop-storehouse for a kimono fabric merchant. Featuring black lacquer plaster walls, hinged doors, sword-shaped snow-splitting roof tiles, and a graceful curved mukuri roof, this imposing kura showcases the distinctive architectural traditions of the Hokuriku region.

Katsura-yu is a former public bathhouse built around 1930 in Jōhana, Nanto City, Toyama Prefecture. Featuring a distinctive copper-clad facade with Western-style cornice molding and gable pediment, this two-story wooden building was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2019 for its contribution to the historic temple town landscape. It now serves as a craft gallery.

Located in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, the Kamidaki Power Station is an active hydroelectric facility completed in 1924 and designated as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property. As the largest and most downstream of three sister stations built during the first phase of Toyama's prefectural electric enterprise on the Joganji River, it features a pioneering reinforced concrete structure with a flat roof—an architectural statement of early modern Japan.

The niwa, or work yard, is the earthen-floored space where the Uchiyama household's farm labour was done, keeping the farming character behind the formal rooms.