Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Japan

Discover the Nishinotani Irrigation Canal in Myoko City, Niigata — a 1926 stone-lined waterway uniquely integrated with a sabo dam. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property combines flood control and irrigation, still serving local rice paddies nearly a century later.

Built in 1875, the No. 1 Rice Storehouse at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro runs some 32 meters. Its plastered wall records a thousand-hectare landowner's wealth.

The No. 1 Storehouse at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro, built in 1875, is a two-story vault whose gable bears the family crest: a landowner's document store.

The Gate and Wall of the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro began as an 1877 row-house gate. A 1935 rebuild raised the entrance and added a roofed wall along the road.

The No. 5 Storehouse at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro, built in 1908, ends a row of four vaults. Its lattice base and plaster shutters set the line's rhythm.

The Workshop at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro, built in 1919, is a single-story building. Under its swept-down eaves, the household's daily labor went on.

The Miscellaneous Storehouse at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro, built in 1875, is a small vault near the grounds' western edge, its planks framing the rear garden.

The No. 3 Storehouse at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro, built in 1901, is a two-story vault. A lattice base and a plaster crest at the gable mark a careful granary.

The Main House of the Ninomiya Residence in Tawarayanagi, Niigata, was rebuilt in 1918 after a flood: a gable-entry farmhouse with modern carpentry by the river.

Standing on the central avenue of Tsubame City in Niigata Prefecture, the Tsubame Church of the United Church of Christ in Japan is a two-story wooden Western-style church built in 1930. With a kindergarten on the first floor and a chapel above, it long supported the working families of this metalworking town. Locally attributed to architect W. M. Vories, it is one of very few surviving prewar Christian buildings in Niigata, and was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2021. Its white weatherboard façade, semicircular arched windows, and small gable cross still shape the streetscape of Tsubame today.

Northeast of the main house, this simple gabled shelter of 1885 covered a well used for daily washing; a glimpse of estate life, it now works as a tea cafe.

South of the strolling garden, on the path between the tea houses, Ihanoya is a tiny building of the late 1940s, just eight square metres, and a garden accent.

A two-story kura of 1887 on the estate's west side, linked by corridor to the main house, with white-plastered walls, kannon doors and a partitioned interior.

South of the main house, this 1889 reception hall opens onto a 32-mat room and a long veranda facing the strolling garden, famous for its autumn colour.

In the northeast of the grounds, this late-Edo farmhouse moved from Kashiwazaki, with a thatched three-room plan and earthen floors, is the oldest here.

North of the main house, this 1883 building was raised to mill timber for the estate itself; 18 metres long under a gabled roof, it now serves as the shop.

On the western edge of the Dairo-an precinct, this early-Showa storehouse is long and narrow, with tall columns raising a high interior for storing provisions.

On a rise at the southwest corner, this late-1940s sukiya tea house faces Sado Island, designed by garden master Tanaka Taiami with fine interior beamwork.

A study and tea room of 1891 designed by the head Ito Bunkichi himself, on a triangular plan nine metres a side, with rooms and timber members cut to match.

Northwest of the main house, this 1901 storehouse was once a rice store and now the museum's gallery, with a cut-stone plinth, namako walls and a trussed roof.

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

Nationwide jūyō bunkazai — architecture, sculpture, painting, crafts, and documents.

UNESCO-inscribed cultural and natural sites across the archipelago.