Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

The 1940 outer worship hall at Omi Jingu in Otsu, 157 square metres, where visitors pray. A stone stair is driven through its central bay beneath a curved gable.

The 1944 first torii at Omi Jingu in Otsu, 7.3 metres wide. A textbook myojin gate with curved upper members, inward-leaning round posts and a squared tie beam.

The 1940 second torii at Omi Jingu in Otsu, 6.4 metres wide, standing at the head of the approach steps. Visitors turn right here for the tower gate above.

The Ohmi Railway Echigawa Bridge, spanning the Echi River in Shiga Prefecture, is a 239-meter steel railway bridge built in 1898. Featuring a British-made pony Warren truss by Andrew Handyside & Company, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property has served as an active railroad crossing for over 125 years.

Discover the charming 1931 Western-style station building of Ohmi Railway Toriimoto in Hikone, Shiga — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property with a distinctive mansard roof, set along the historic Nakasendo post town.

The Omihachiman Youth Hostel in Shiga Prefecture is a nationally registered tangible cultural property originally built in 1909 as the Gamo-gun Industrial Promotion Hall. Featuring a distinctive cusped-gable entrance and grand interior staircase, this Meiji-era wooden public building offers guests the rare opportunity to stay overnight inside a cultural landmark.

The Oku-Ibuki Furusato Denshokan is an early Edo-period thatched-roof farmhouse in the remote mountain village of Kozuhara, Maibara City, Shiga Prefecture. As the sole building to survive four devastating fires that struck the village over a span of roughly thirty years during the late Edo period, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. The museum preserves hemp textiles and folk artifacts, and its distinctive vertically planked kitchen floor—once used as a Noh performance stage—reflects Kozuhara's remarkable heritage as a village of the performing arts.

Discover Okkin Mukugawa Exchange Hall, a Meiji-era thatched-roof farmhouse registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture. Explore its traditional irori hearth, tatami rooms, and the charming mountain village of Mukugawa near Lake Biwa.

Discover Kagi-rou, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Taga, Shiga Prefecture. This Edo-period ryokan founded in 1689 features exquisite sukiya-style architecture and stands as an iconic landmark of the Taga Taisha shrine town.

Above the main hall of Kawaraya-ji in Shiga, this small 1700 founder's hall honours the monk who revived the temple and shows the Zen style at close range.

Built in 1725, this sutra hall at Kawaraya-ji holds an octagonal revolving scripture case and bold shrimp-beam framing. It is the one building listed for design merit.

The largest building at Kawaraya-ji, this 1871 priests' quarters greets guests with a cusped karahafu entrance and bold beam framing over its earthen-floored kitchen.

Linked to the main hall by a covered corridor, this mid-1640s hall at Kawaraya-ji is thought to be its former main hall, marked by the raigō pillars still at its altar.

Before the main hall, this mid-1640s bell tower at Kawaraya-ji rises on sixteen-faceted posts splayed outward for strength. Hanging its bell marked the temple's revival.

The smallest of Kawaraya-ji's seven listed buildings, this 1818 hall of barely three square metres packs full Zen detail around Binzuru, the arhat rubbed for healing.

The Former Imazu Post Office, located on Vories Street in Imazu, Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture, is a two-story wooden post office building designed by American architect William Merrell Vories and completed in 1936. Featuring a semicircular arched entrance and charming blend of Western and Japanese design elements, it was registered as a nationally designated tangible cultural property in 2015.

The Former Shiga Bank Konan Branch, located along the historic Soma Kaido road in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, is a reinforced concrete bank building completed in 1925 to a design by William Merrell Vories. Featuring Ionic columns and a semicircular arched window in classical Western style, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

Built around 1919 by the Ōmi merchant Tanaka family, this great hall frames its garden through verandas and Taishō glass, and now serves the Ōmi Shōnintei restaurant.

This 1919 plaster storehouse stands at the northwest corner, with a boarded skirt, a separate roof over its core, and a notched eaves band, shaping the post-town street.

Built around 1919 by the Ōmi merchant Tanaka family, this eight-mat tea room works round bamboo and fine woods into its alcove, and now forms part of the Ōmi Shōnintei.