Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

On Mount Akagami's rock face, the 1753 Main Hall of Tarobogu Aga Shrine honours a kami of victory. Its carved irimoya hall was registered as a Cultural Property in 2019.

The Niki Family Residence Western-style Building in Konan, Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, is a two-story wooden Western-style house built in 1923 by a Kobe carpenter. Featuring half-timbered gable walls, German plaster exteriors, and classical columned entrance, it was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 1997.

The Main Hall of Saifukuji Temple in Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture, is a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1862 during the late Edo period. This Jodo-shu (Pure Land) Buddhist hall features an imposing hip-and-gable tiled roof, a classic floor plan with outer hall, inner sanctuary, and flanking chambers, and fine decorative carvings characteristic of the bakumatsu era.

Standing on Vories Street in Imazu, Takashima City, Shiga Prefecture, Imazu Church of the United Church of Christ in Japan is a wooden church designed by architect William Merrell Vories and completed in 1934. Featuring a distinctive tower and bright facade, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. Together with a former bank and post office on the same street, it preserves the modern architectural heritage of Lake Biwa's western shore.

The Chapel of the United Church of Christ in Japan Omi Kaneda Church is a two-story wooden worship hall in Omi Hachiman, Shiga Prefecture, designed by the Vories Architectural Office and completed in 1950. Featuring a gabled slate roof, a southwest bell tower, and exposed kingpost trusses in the second-floor nave, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2012. The chapel is one of more than 20 Vories-related buildings still standing in Omi Hachiman.

The UCCJ Katata Church in Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, is a wooden church designed by William Merrell Vories and completed in 1930. Featuring Tudor-arched quadruple windows and a distinctive pointed-roof corner tower, the church and its red-brick wall are both designated as nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan.

A nationally registered tangible cultural property in Katata, Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture, designed by the Vories Architectural Office. Built in 1930, this red brick wall features a stretcher bond pattern standing 12 courses high, with a distinctive 45-degree rotated coping course that creates an open, welcoming entrance to the church.

The Gate Pillars of the Minakuchi Church in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, are brick pillars designed by American architect William Merrell Vories in 1930. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, they embody the history of Christian mission and Western architecture in the Omi region.

The Minakuchi Church Chapel in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, is a wooden chapel designed by William Merrell Vories in 1930. Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property, this American Colonial-style building with a distinctive Latin cross floor plan stands as a masterpiece of early Showa-era architecture nestled in a historic castle town.

Hakuunkan in Omi-Hachiman, Shiga Prefecture, is a masterpiece of pseudo-Western architecture built in 1877 as the Hachiman-Higashi Elementary School, funded almost entirely by donations from prosperous Omi merchants. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, this distinctive building blends Western facades with Japanese karahafu gables and a drum tower. Today it serves as a tourist information center and gateway to exploring the historic lakeside city.

A 1929 registered property in Higashiomi, Shiga: a plain merchant-town front hiding a refined sukiya hall upstairs, with a curved coffered ceiling and bat-shaped windows.

The oldest of the estate's three registered buildings in Higashiomi, Shiga: a kura of about 1919, facing the road with board skirting below and corrugated iron above.

A 1929 registered property on the Fukada estate in Higashiomi, Shiga: a small wing for the bath and lavatory, yet with a corridor ceiling refined enough for a hanare.

Fujii Honke's main house began as a merchant home in Hino, rebuilt at this Aisho brewery around 1960. Its stepped roofline sets formal rooms apart from the work hall.

The Fujii Honke shoin is a single-story guest wing of three linked blocks. Rebuilt here at a right angle to the main house, it reflects a Taisho merchant family's taste.

The Fujii Honke chimney rises about eleven meters between two storehouses, its square brick shaft laid in English bond, red brick set against the white plastered walls.

This small building held Fujii Honke's testing and inspection rooms, where the finished sake was judged. Its plastered west front carries an insect-cage lattice window.

The Fujii Honke brewing storehouse stands by a stone-lined channel. Inside this earthen-walled hall, steamed rice, koji, starter and Suzuka water form the staged mash.

The Fujii Honke sake storehouse is the largest of the group at some 728 square meters. Its L-shaped plan holds the kettle room and links the small inspection rooms.

The Main Hall (Kannon-dō) of Myōkanji Temple in Konan City, Shiga Prefecture, is a registered tangible cultural property built in 1937 and designed by Fujiwara Yoshikazu, a lecturer at Kyoto Imperial University. This refined wooden hall faithfully recreates the medieval Zen architectural style with its three-bay square plan and hip-and-gable tiled roof. Founded by Madenokōji Fujifusa, a courtier of Emperor Go-Daigo who became the second patriarch of Myōshinji, the temple enshrines a Nanbokuchō-period Eleven-Faced Thousand-Armed Kannon statue.

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UNESCO-inscribed cultural and natural sites across the archipelago.