Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Gunma

Just a two-minute walk from JR Takasaki Station, surrounded by modern office towers, stands a two-story wooden inn from 1932 that is still in active use today. Founded in 1879 and famed during the war years as a station-front ryokan in the military city of Takasaki—and later as a favored retreat of novelist Shiba Ryotaro—Toyodaya Ryokan Main Building is registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, prized for its irimoya roof, gable-entry plan, and graceful karahafu entrance.

An 1894 wing of tatami rooms in Kiryu that wraps a family pawn storehouse under one roof. An ink inscription on a beam records the date and that year's war.

A wooden street gate of about 1937 beside the store on Kiryu's Honcho-dori, with gray plaster side walls, sliding doors that slide into them, and a passage behind.

A tiny 1937 bathhouse in Kiryu, 6.2 square meters, with bath, changing room and stoking area, plumbed with running water after the town waterworks opened in 1932.

A long, narrow 1937 storehouse in Kiryu of cut andesite, plastered white above a stone base, which the family called the rayon storehouse after its contents.

A 1937 reception wing in Kiryu: a concrete room with a rooftop balcony and glass-block skylight, and a wooden 2-story part once used as a Go parlor. Registered 2005.

A 2-story 1922 shop on Kiryu's Honcho-dori with a hipped street end, degeta eaves, gray plaster walls and a tall upper floor. Still a paint store; registered 2005.

A 2-story 1937 storehouse in Kiryu, built of reinforced concrete but painted to look like a white-plastered kura under a tiled gable roof. Registered in 2005.

Standing in Takasaki City, Gunma Prefecture, the Niijima Gakuen Junior College Research Building is the only surviving circular schoolhouse in Gunma. Built in 1956 as the schoolhouse of Takasaki Municipal Girls' High School, this three-story reinforced concrete cylinder was designed by Kanao Sakamoto, the Japanese architect celebrated for his circular school designs. With a spiral staircase at its core and five fan-shaped classrooms arranged around the perimeter, the building was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2018. Discover this remarkable survivor of Japan's 1950s architectural experimentation.

A 1920 wooden pastor's residence at Annaka Church in Gunma, whose 8- and 10-mat tatami rooms are said to be from a former Annaka domain retainer's mansion.

At Annaka Church in Gunma sits Gientei, a 1935 wooden study built for pastor Kashiwagi Gien, whose 459-issue monthly opposed Japan's wars and empire until 1936.

Completed in 1919, 30 years after Niijima Jo's death, this Oya stone church in Annaka, Gunma, has buttresses, a bell tower and a vaulted ceiling. Registered 2004.

A 1954 timber missionary house at Annaka Church in Gunma, with clapboard below, mortar above, a bay window and 3 chimneys in the Meiji-era manner. Registered 2004.

Built in 1930 on land given by a weaving-mill owner, this wooden church in Kiryu, Gunma, is the oldest church building in the city. Registered in 2024.

An 1897 timber chapel in Isesaki, Gunma, with a gabled nave, a half-hipped 2-storey wing, a king-post truss and a simple half-timbered porch. Registered 2008.

A timber nursery school built in 1950 by Shimamura Church in Isesaki, Gunma, renovated in 1953 and extended in 1954. Registered with the church chapel in 2008.

Built in 1877 in Kiryu, Gunma, this registered gate and 19-metre plastered wall are all a weaving family showed the street. Private home, viewable from the lane.

Completed in 1955 above Haruna Shrine in Takasaki, this 69-metre erosion-control dam is faced in diagonally coursed stone. Free to visit, five minutes on foot.

This late Edo gatehouse of the Shinden honjin at Nakayama-juku in Takayama, Gunma, served as the local post office from 1873 to 1966. A rare early rural example.

At Ōana Onsen in Minakami, Gunma, this bath sits deep in a tunnel hewn into the bedrock, where Moralogy's founder Hiroike Chikuro convalesced. It was listed in 2025.