Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

Maizuru Bridge is a stone single-arch bridge built in 1886 spanning the moat of Yonezawa Castle in Yamagata Prefecture. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, it serves as the main approach to Uesugi Shrine and is affectionately known as 'Megane-bashi' (Spectacles Bridge). Its unusually wide deck, tuff stone balustrades, and natural boulder-topped pillars make it a distinctive example of Meiji-era bridge architecture.

The Main Hall of Myozenji Temple in Yamagata City is a wooden temple building designed in 1934 by Ito Chuta, the legendary architect behind Tsukiji Hongwanji. Featuring symmetrical bell and drum towers and a grand 60-tatami hall, it is a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

The 1925 heart of the former Uesugi counts' residence in Yonezawa, rebuilt in pure Japanese style by Nakajo Seiichiro, its cypress hall open beside Uesugi Shrine.

On the north side of the Yonezawa City Uesugi Memorial Hall stands a plaster-walled dozo storehouse built to resist fire, completed in 1924 and registered in 1997.

The only two-storey building of the former Uesugi residence in Yonezawa, a 1925 guest wing by Nakajo Seiichiro whose banded corridor transoms shape its refined exterior.

Beside the main gate of the former Uesugi count's residence stands the guardhouse, built in the 1920s and registered in 1997. In 2019 it became the Nagomitei cafe.

A rear wing of the former Uesugi residence in Yonezawa holding the children's and maids' rooms, built in fine cedar to the same standard as the formal rooms.

A single-storey service wing of the former Uesugi residence in Yonezawa, with servants' rooms, a maids' room and a kitchen, plainly but finely built in cedar.

A registered storehouse behind the former Uesugi count's residence in Yonezawa. Built in 1925 as a rice store, this plastered dozo joins a rebuilt daimyo estate.

The smallest of the buildings at the former Uesugi count's residence in Yonezawa, this 24-square-meter registered cultural property shelters a single family altar.

The former Uesugi residence in Yonezawa is fronted by a single-bay yakuimon gate with a curved copper roof, rebuilt after a 1919 fire and now a registered property.

Rebuilt in 1935 after a fire, this two-story wooden schoolhouse in Yonezawa still holds classes, its half-timber walls facing the approach to Uesugi Shrine.

On Mount Chokai stands Ryuzuji's plain 1933 founder's hall, registered in 2015, its clapboard shell hiding a lacquered interior and trowel-worked plaster reliefs.

Built around 1875 in earthen storehouse construction, the Kannon-do at Ryuto-ji sits below Mount Chokai, its front beam carved with a dragon for the temple's name.

Built in 1844 below Mt. Chokai, this registered hall once headed Warabioka's mountain ascetics, joining a worship hall and priests' quarters under one copper roof.

In Yamagata's Kaminoyama Onsen, the 1939 Ryokan Yonemoto blends Doric pilasters, round upper windows, and a tiled gabled entrance into an eclectic registered facade.

A 1952 cobblestone dam on Yamagata's Tachiyazawa River, trapping sediment off Mount Gassan. Its stonework and curved spillway became a cultural property in 2017.

Built in 1909 in Iide, Yamagata, the Watanabe Rokurobei nagayamon is a two-storey plastered gatehouse with a brick base and a coffered ceiling over its passage.

Onoda Cement Yamate Club in Sanyo-Onoda City, Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1914. Built from concrete blocks manufactured on-site using molds that company president Kasai Shinzo personally brought back from England, the two-story mansion combines Japanese Edo-kiri stone-dressing techniques with Roman-inspired Tuscan columns. It stands as a rare survivor of early Taisho-period block construction and a monument to Japan's first private cement company.

The Kase Tunnel in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a stone road tunnel cut through the Kasega-saka Pass during the Meiji era. Construction began in 1883 and was completed in 1886. With a length of about 182 metres, a width of about 4.2 metres, and a height of about 3.9 metres, its andesite ashlar interior still preserves the atmosphere of early modern Japan. Recorded as the first Western-style stone road tunnel in Yamaguchi Prefecture and built as a symbol of Hagi's hopes for revival after the prefectural seat moved to Yamaguchi, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1999.

The complete kokuhō catalogue — browse by prefecture, period, and category.

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UNESCO-inscribed cultural and natural sites across the archipelago.