Meiji

Discover Tomioka Silk Mill, a UNESCO World Heritage Site that transformed Japan from feudal isolation to global silk leader. Explore preserved 1872 buildings, French machinery, and revolutionary labor practices just 2 hours from Tokyo.

Discover Shigeta House in Tamamura, Gunma - a 300-year-old physician's estate with 7 nationally registered cultural properties. Experience Meiji-era architecture, traditional medicine history, and free doctor costume activities. Open Wed-Fri, free admission.

Discover the Ogiwara Family Residence, a nationally registered cultural property in Kiryu City, Gunma. This Meiji-era merchant home with its traditional storehouse, gate, and walls offers a rare glimpse into Japan's thriving silk textile industry history.

At Kusatsu Onsen's center, 4,040 liters surface every minute through seven wooden conduits in Taro Okamoto's gourd-shaped basin. A National Scenic Beauty since 2017.

A small early-Meiji pawn storehouse moved to Mt. Akagi, its plaster walls and layered doors marking careful work. Registered in 2025, it is now a Seiho Sanso guest room.

One of the oldest brick warehouses by Maebashi Station, No. 3 dates to 1896. Cornices wrap its walls and arched windows run the long front. It once held silk and cocoons.

Facing west at the east edge of the yard, No. 2 Brick Warehouse was built in 1896 like No. 3. Cornices and arched windows line its walls; once a silk and cocoon store.

The Former Katsuyama-sha Brick Warehouse in Maebashi City, Gunma Prefecture, is a nationally registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1902. Originally constructed for the Katsuyama-sha textile company founded by silk merchant Katsuyama Sozaburo, this two-story brick storehouse features exquisite over-fired bricks in English bond pattern with traditional Japanese kura-style design elements. Discover this hidden gem of Japan's Meiji-era silk industry heritage.

Completed in 1911 just south of No. 6, this fermentation shed echoes the older one, its pantile roof later re-covered in slate, and it meets No. 8 in twin gable ends.

The oldest of Shoda Soy Sauce's four brewing sheds, built in 1908, with a king-post truss and a rare hipped-and-gabled roof from the dawn of industrial brewing.

Discover the Aratogawa Bridge of the Jomo Electric Railway in Maebashi, Gunma. This registered tangible cultural property features British-made steel girders from 1903, rebuilt after the devastating 1947 Typhoon Kathleen. Explore its industrial heritage along the scenic route at the foot of Mt. Akagi.

Discover Shiraiya, a registered tangible cultural property in Nakanojo, Gunma Prefecture. This Meiji-era wooden inn features distinctive segai-zukuri architecture and preserves the atmosphere of a traditional Japanese hatago along the Mikuni Kaidō route.

The smallest of the eight Fujiu buildings in Kiryu, Gunma, this early-Meiji shelter guards an Edo-period Inari shrine. Private; not open to the public.

A two-story early-Meiji retirement house at the Fujiu residence in Kiryu, Gunma, joined to the main house across a garden. Private; not open to the public.

A two-story plastered kura at the Fujiu residence in Kiryu, Gunma, attached to the main house to shield stored goods from fire. Private; not open to the public.

An early-Meiji bracket gate at the Fujiu residence in Kiryu, Gunma, moved intact in 1973 when the road was widened. Private; not open to the public.

Early-Meiji working buildings at the Fujiu residence in Kiryu, Gunma: a water mill and storehouse under one tiled roof. Private; not open to the public.

An early-Meiji roofed timber wall on a stone footing at the Fujiu residence in Kiryu, Gunma; about 24 meters survive. Private; not open to the public.

A small early-Meiji shoin-style tea room in the garden of the Fujiu residence in Kiryu, Gunma, with an open veranda. Private; not open to the public.

Explore the registered Tangible Cultural Property platform at Omama Station on the Watarase Keikoku Railway. Built in 1911, this 107-meter stone platform preserves Meiji-era railway architecture amid the stunning Watarase Gorge in Gunma Prefecture.