Meiji

Mikuni's 511-metre stone breakwater, designed by Dutch engineer G. A. Escher and founded on woven brushwood, was the first such work in Japan. Completed 1882.

Attached to the Ishida main house, this late-Meiji storehouse was framed from reused sake-brewery timber and fitted with a twelve-mat tatami parlor below. Exterior only.

This early-Meiji long gatehouse fronts the Ishida compound and is said to have been moved from a Fukui samurai residence, its gate under a tiled roof. Exterior only.

This early-Meiji storehouse on the Ishida compound carries local blue-green Shakudani stone along its roof ridge, with a sheltered forecourt on the east. Exterior only.

The former Inoue Dental Clinic in Echizen City, Fukui Prefecture, is a small but remarkable National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1908 after a great fire destroyed much of the town. Behind its Western-style facade, adorned with Tuscan pilasters and a scrolled pediment crafted by master plasterer Ishido Yoshijiro, lies a traditional Japanese dozo (earthen-walled storehouse) structure. Set among historic shrines and preserved merchant districts, the clinic offers visitors a memorable window into Meiji-era provincial architecture.

Built in 1868, the Main House of the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui heads a registered papermaking compound whose kumohada-mashi served Yokoyama Taikan.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.

The Former Owada Bank Head Office Building in Tsuruga, Fukui Prefecture, is a wooden two-story Japanese–Western hybrid structure built in 1901. Standing on the founding site of the Owada Bank, this nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property and Japan Heritage constituent property now serves as the annex of the Minato Tsuruga Float Museum, showcasing the history of Kitamae-bune trade and the port town of Tsuruga.

Built in 1894 near Tsuruga, the First Kannonji Tunnel opens the former Hokuriku Line, its symmetrical andesite portal showing Meiji stonecraft at its most deliberate.

The 310-metre Second Kannonji Tunnel near Tsuruga still holds metal fittings from its railway days at the arch springing, making the vanished line feel suddenly present.

Nearly a kilometre long, the 1896 Habara Tunnel carries one of the grandest portals on the line, with wide parapets and finely built stone-and-brick drainage.

The compact 64-metre Funagaya Tunnel near Tsuruga rewards a close eye: its north portal crown slopes to follow the hillside, over a brick arch laid in stretcher bond.

The 260-metre Magaridani Tunnel near Tsuruga is one link in the chain of bores below the Kinome Pass, built to carry a steep railway over a barrier between two provinces.

At 1,170 metres the brick Yamanaka Tunnel is the longest on the former Hokuriku Line and marked the summit of its crossing, once crowned with a minister's calligraphy.

Nearest to the old Imajo post town, the 368-metre brick Yunoo Tunnel is the northern gateway of the former Hokuriku Line, with a grand four-pilaster andesite portal.

Hidden some 20 metres below the old trackbed, the Wanayamadani Culvert is the longest on the former Hokuriku Line, its steep brick-and-stone barrel taming a stream.

Up four stone steps from the street stands the front gate of the Yamakawa residence in Obama, a three-bay ridged gate with plaster wing walls, about 5.1 metres long.

Rebuilt in 1907 on an older samurai plan, the main house of the Yamakawa residence in Obama joins a formal shikidai entrance to a banker's dignity, poet Tomiko's home.