Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

A compact white-rice storehouse of the Nishioka Honten brewery in Makabe. Near-windowless and set against the shop, it was registered in 2001 and is now a gallery.

The former Mitsukaido town office in Joso, Ibaraki, built in 1913, is a symmetrical single-storey timber building made to look like two storeys, now a library annex.

The Anglican chapel of Saint Barnabas in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, built in 1930 west of the castle ruins, has concrete walls, timber trusses and an octagonal bell tower.

The Numajiri storehouse in Kaneda, Tsukuba, is a two-story mid-Meiji building (1868-1911), holding farm tools below and documents above, like the rice store.

The Numajiri rice storehouse in Kaneda, Tsukuba, is a two-story early-Meiji granary (1868-1911). Its gable-entry, boarded form is now remodeled as a cafe.

The Numajiri main house in Kaneda, Tsukuba, is a late-Edo thatched farmhouse (1751-1829). Its four-room plan and wide southern aisle mark a regional house type.

The Numajiri row building in Kaneda, Tsukuba, is a two-story early-Taisho structure (1912-1925), a workshop below and a silkworm room above, now used as a shop.

The late-Edo koraimon gate of the Nemoto physician family in Makabe, Sakuragawa, Ibaraki, with small tiled roofs over its posts and black board walls on either side.

A 1932 concrete gallery wing of the Bakumatsu and Meiji Museum in Oarai, Ibaraki, with windowless faux-stone walls, pilasters, dentils and Corinthian-style columns.

A wooden inn built in 1929 on a street corner in Makabe, Sakuragawa City. Its entrance canopy, wide upper openings and balustrade mark the trade. Registered 2002.

A Meiji-era storehouse of just 21 square metres in Makabe, Sakuragawa City: white lime plaster above, boarding below to shed rain. Registered in 2002 with its inn.

A twin-arch reinforced concrete aqueduct of 1918 in Takahagi, Ibaraki, still carrying water to a power station; its two arches earn it the name Megane, spectacles.

An early Showa timber house in Makabe, Sakuragawa City, registered 2004. Boarded walls, plaster on the street front alone, hipped tiled roof; exterior viewing only.

A Meiji koraimon gate at Makabe, Sakuragawa City, registered 2004. Round posts, gabled tiled roof, wing walls each side, a wicket door; street viewing only.

Raised around 1930 after a fire razed central Ishioka, this two-storey timber shophouse fronts Nakamachi-dori with scratch-tile pilasters. Registered in 2004.

A mid-Meiji merchant house on a T-junction corner in Makabe, Sakuragawa. Its west flank alone is plastered like a storehouse, a fire precaution learned in 1837.

An 1893 earthen storehouse set deep in a Makabe merchant plot. Its ridgepole inscription names the month of building and the master carpenter, a rare dated record.

Built in 1928 and spared by the fire that levelled Ishioka a year later, this artificial-stone shopfront is the town's oldest signboard building and still trades.

Built in 1931 on Ishioka's Nakamachi Street, this sugar shop wears the heavy roof of a traditional merchant house, yet its black wall is concrete, not plaster.

The Fuchu Homare kamaba in Ishioka, Ibaraki, is an early Meiji earthen building whose raised koshiyane roof vented the steam from rice steamed for sake.