Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

Visit the Takeuchi Genzo Memorial Museum in Imizu, Toyama, a registered tangible cultural property housed in a 1934 Western-style town hall. Explore Japan's largest kote-e plaster relief "Twin Dragons" and the legacy of master plasterer Takeuchi Genzo.

The Former Main Building of Tanaka Elementary School in Namerikawa City, Toyama Prefecture, is a two-story wooden schoolhouse built in 1936 and registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Celebrated for its Art Deco and Renaissance-inspired interior ornamentation, it is also known as the model for the school in the anime film Wolf Children.

Attached to the Ishida main house, this late-Meiji storehouse was framed from reused sake-brewery timber and fitted with a twelve-mat tatami parlor below. Exterior only.

The Ishida Residence main house on Fukui's Echizen coast is a late-Edo timber home under russet Echizen tile, built by a family of village headmen. Exterior view only.

This early-Meiji long gatehouse fronts the Ishida compound and is said to have been moved from a Fukui samurai residence, its gate under a tiled roof. Exterior only.

The oldest Ishida storehouse, this late-Edo building has a miso lean-to whose east wall is namako-kabe, a grid of black tile and white plaster. Exterior only.

This early-Meiji storehouse on the Ishida compound carries local blue-green Shakudani stone along its roof ridge, with a sheltered forecourt on the east. Exterior only.

The former Inoue Dental Clinic in Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, is a small but remarkable National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1908 after a great fire destroyed much of the town. Behind its Western-style facade, adorned with Tuscan pilasters and a scrolled pediment crafted by master plasterer Ishido Yoshijiro, lies a traditional Japanese dozo (earthen-walled storehouse) structure. Set among historic shrines and preserved merchant districts, the clinic offers visitors a memorable window into Meiji-era provincial architecture.

Built in 1868, the Main House of the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui heads a registered papermaking compound whose kumohada-mashi served Yokoyama Taikan.

The smallest registered building at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, this 1956 shed made the wooden crates that carried fine paper to painters nationwide.

Kogura, a 1949 two-story plaster dozo at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, once dried the oversized handmade sheets the mill is celebrated for.

The largest building at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, this late-Taisho hall is where sheets are formed by nagashi-zuki and then pressed of water.

A late-Taisho earthen-walled storehouse at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, built to guard fine paper from fire and damp, with a formal room upstairs.

The 1952 Fiber-Boiling House at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, is where kozo, mitsumata, gampi and hemp are boiled and cleaned to begin papermaking.

The 1953 Stretching and Drying Hall at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui dried pressed sheets on boards under a wide truss-spanned room, the final step.

The 1953 Beater House at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui cleaned and beat plant fiber into even pulp under a king-post truss lit by ribbon windows.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.