Edo

The archive of the Katori family, hereditary priests of Katori Jingu in Chiba: 381 documents, late Heian to Edo, on how a great medieval shrine ran its estates.

Held by the Chiba City Museum of Art, this National Important Cultural Property by Tanomura Chikuden — painted in Osaka in 1829 when he was 53 — is a luminous example of late Edo-period literati painting. Its poetic contrast between a storm-tossed boat and a calm interior, together with the artist's own dated inscription, make it one of the finest benchmark works of Japanese bunjinga.

The Takida Family Residence in Shiroi City, Chiba Prefecture, is a thatched hipped-roof farmhouse estimated to have been built in the mid-to-late 17th century. As the only nationally designated Important Cultural Property folk house in Chiba Prefecture that remains continuously inhabited, this former village headman's home preserves over 350 years of architectural heritage along the shores of Shimo-Teganuma Pond.

Built in 1622 by sword-appraiser Hon'ami Kōshitsu for his late parents, this 31.6-meter vermilion pagoda at Hokekyō-ji is Chiba's only surviving Edo-period pagoda.

Choshi lost its old townscape in 1945; this net barn survived. Dated by tradition to the 1860s, it seals nets behind deep eaves and blank walls. Registered 2018.

Same design as its neighbour, three-fifths the size, one window moved from the upper gable to the ground floor. Two Keio-era net barns side by side. Registered 2018.

Built in 1847, the main house of the Someya residence in Kashiwa ranks among western Chiba's largest farmhouses, its L-shaped earthen wing recalling a headman's life.

The Nagayamon gate faces south along the front of the Someya estate, a gateway flanked by rooms east and west. It is held to be the oldest of the eight buildings.

The document storehouse of 1867 is the second-oldest building at the Someya residence. Its thick plastered walls sheltered the archive that now dates the estate.

In Narashino, Chiba, the Hirose Family Residence Main House preserves a late-Edo grain merchant's rooms and Boso farmhouse details, built by a temple carpenter.

A wooden 1866 gate fronting a pharmacy that has served Chonan's old post town for 300 years, its angled wing walls forming a forecourt to welcome travelers.

Discover the Mukai-gura storehouse at the Motegi Shichiroemon Residence in Noda, Chiba — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property from the Edo period, reflecting the legacy of a soy sauce brewing family that helped found Kikkoman.

Standing on the old Sakandana street in Kisarazu, Chiba Prefecture, the Yamani Tsunashima Shoten shop building is a late Edo-period dry goods store founded in 1866. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, its distinctive architecture features two storehouse-style buildings of different heights arranged front to back. Discover the charm of this rare surviving merchant building that tells the story of Kisarazu's prosperous port town heritage.

The Ino Tadataka Related Materials gather 2,345 items, from 123 finished Ino maps and 399 drafts to 63 instruments, showing how Japan's first measured map was made.

A 17th-century ink painting by Iwasa Matabei: Rōgyoku summons a phoenix with her flute. A panel of the dispersed Kanaya screen, an Important Cultural Property.

Discover the Important Cultural Property collection of over 3,000 documents related to Okubo Toshimichi, one of the Three Great Nobles of the Meiji Restoration, housed at the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, Chiba.

A National Treasure near Tokyo: a Southern Song printing of the Hanshu in 61 fascicles, holding the earliest reliable Chinese record of Japan, the Wa people.

A complete Southern Song printing of the Book of the Later Han, kept in Sakura, whose account of the eastern peoples names Queen Himiko and an embassy of 57 CE.

A National Treasure near Tokyo: the Song-dynasty Shiji printed by Huang Shanfu, the oldest complete copy of the three-commentary edition, all 130 chapters intact.