Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Ehime

Explore Shokodo Hall (章光堂), a stunning 1922 wooden auditorium in Matsuyama. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property features Tuscan columns, Renaissance design, and survived WWII air raids. Located near Dogo Onsen, discover why this hidden gem of Japanese academic architecture is a must-visit for culture enthusiasts.

Discover Asahi-kan, a beautifully preserved 1926 movie theater in Uchiko, Ehime Prefecture. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property features a distinctive Japanese-Western hybrid design with a hexagonal drum tower, and continues to host cultural events in the heart of one of Shikoku's most charming historic towns.

Discover Asahi Soy Sauce Brewery in Uwajima, Ehime — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1884, where Taisho-era warehouse architecture meets a living soy sauce tradition now in its fourth generation.

The former Ishizaki Steamship Company Headquarters in Matsuyama's Mitsuhama port district is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1924. Designed by acclaimed architect Kigo Shichiro, this reinforced concrete building features an elegant symmetrical facade with orange and white tiles, embodying the prosperity of Seto Inland Sea maritime commerce. Combine your visit with a stroll through the retro charm of the Mitsuhama district.

Discover the Imabari Radium Onsen Main Hall, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Ehime Prefecture. Built in 1919, this reinforced concrete bathhouse features unique octagonal domes and a polygonal tower, standing as a rare Taisho-era survivor of the Imabari air raids.

The Ehime Prefectural Education Hall in Matsuyama City is a three-story wooden building constructed in 1937, designed by prefectural architect Asaka Ryōsuke. Blending Western architectural styles with traditional Japanese decorative elements, it exemplifies early Shōwa-period design and was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2003.

Completed in 1929, the Ehime Prefectural Office Main Building is a Western-style reinforced concrete structure designed by architect Kigo Shichirō. Featuring a distinctive H-shaped plan crowned with a domed tower, marble interiors, and elegant chandeliers, it is the third-oldest prefectural office still in active use by a governor in Japan. It was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2021.

Located in Kanou-cho, Shikokuchuo City, Ehime Prefecture, the Onishi Internal Medicine Clinic Examination Building is a single-story wooden medical building constructed in the early Taisho period (1912-1925). Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2001, it exemplifies the giyofu (pseudo-Western) architectural style with its traditional irimoya tiled roof above Western-style clapboard walls. Decorative blind fanlights and a covered carriage entrance reflect the unique character of provincial modern medical architecture in Japan.

Located in Sugata-machi, Ozu City, Ehime Prefecture, the Ono Family Residence Nagayamon Gate is a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property built before 1857. Distinguished by its asymmetric roof combining hip-and-gable and gable forms, a raised monitor roof, and a finely composed lattice façade, it stands as one of southern Ehime's most impressive surviving long-house gates.

Spanning the Kojoro River gorge in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, Otoshi Bridge is one of Japan's oldest surviving steel arch bridges. Built in 1905 with German Burbach steel as a combined road bridge and drainage channel for the legendary Besshi Copper Mine, this 48-metre spandrel-braced single-arch structure is registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Standing silently in a deep mountain gorge, it remains a vivid witness to the industrial heritage that powered Japan's modernization.

Tucked into a quiet ravine along the Koyabu River in Ozu City, Ehime Prefecture, Koyabu Onsen Honkan is a rare three-story wooden hot spring inn from the Taisho era. Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2000, this irimoya-roofed tower-style ryokan is still a working inn, offering silky alkaline waters renowned as a beautifying bath and a vivid glimpse of Japan's traditional toji-ba bathing culture.

Quietly standing within the precincts of Chōraku-ji Temple in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, the Kagiya Kana Shōkōdō (Kagiya Kana Memorial Hall) was built in 1929 to honor the achievements of Kagiya Kana, a woman who created Iyo-kasuri, one of Japan's three great kasuri textiles. Designed by the renowned architect Kigo Shichirō, who also created the famous Bansui-sō and the Ehime Prefectural Government Main Building, this distinctive reinforced-concrete octagonal hall is supported by eight entasis columns and traditional bracket sets, beautifully fusing Eastern and Western architectural sensibilities. It was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2001.

Built in 1917 on the western shore of Yuge Island in Kamijima Town, Ehime Prefecture, this two-story wooden home is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan. With its iri-moya tiled roof and tsushi-nikai second floor, it inherits the architectural traditions of folk dwellings of the Seto Inland Sea islands. Together with the property's storehouse and gate, it preserves the historic streetscape of an island port town.

Discover the Kami-Yuge Tasaka Family Residence Storehouse on Yuge Island, Ehime—a 1917 dozō-style earthen-walled warehouse and Registered Tangible Cultural Property that preserves the traditional townhouse landscape of a Seto Inland Sea port settlement.

Built in 1917 in the port settlement of Kami-Yuge on Yuge Island in the Seto Inland Sea, this gabled tile-roofed gate and earthen wall preserve the streetscape of an early 20th-century island town. Together with the residence's main house and storehouse, they were registered as Tangible Cultural Properties in 2019.

Kihoku Town Hall in Ehime Prefecture is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1958 as the original Hiromi Town Hall, designed by the office of Czech-born architect Antonin Raymond. Its third-floor council chamber features a then-cutting-edge hyperbolic paraboloid shell roof, and circular glass blocks scatter colored light across the interior. A meticulously faithful renovation has earned it multiple national architectural awards, and it is now celebrated as a hidden gem of postwar Japanese modernism.

Built in 1935 for a Sumitomo Chemical manager in Niihama, this registered house splits guest and family space with a central tatami corridor. Free Sunday tours.

Completed in 1959, this auditor's house is the only postwar building among Niihama's six registered Sumitomo residences. Exterior viewing only at present.

At 295 square meters, this 1935 executive house is the largest of Niihama's six registered Sumitomo residences, clad in vertical boards and white plaster.

The 1937 reception annex of the Besshi mine director's residence greets guests under two stacked entrance roofs and a Western drawing room. Free Sunday tours.