Important Cultural Property of Hiroshima

Discover the Araki Family Residence, an Important Cultural Property in Shobara, Hiroshima. This 18th-century thatched-roof home of a hereditary Shinto priest showcases rare architectural features of the Chugoku region's mountain villages.

Discover Ankokuji Shakado, an Important Cultural Property in Tomonoura, Fukuyama. This Muromachi-period Zen-style hall houses precious Buddhist statues and a karesansui garden, set in one of Japan's most beautiful historic port towns.

Rebuilt in 1875, the Itsukushima Shrine Great Torii is anchored by nothing: pine piles, gravel in its box lintel and its own mass keep it upright in the sea.

Erected in 1407 on Tonooka hill, the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda hides Shingon patriarchs and a Chinese landscape inside a storey no visitor may enter.

Built in 1523 in Omoto Park, this three-bay hall carries a long-board roof laid six deep in three courses, a covering with no other surviving example in Japan.

Late Muromachi and entered from the gable, this hall has a roof sweep close to straight where every neighbour curves, and its worship space doubles as a corridor.

Built by Mori Takamoto in 1556, this is the one hall at Itsukushima left as bare timber with plaster walls, and a rare survival of a Muromachi renga poetry hall.

Built in 1523 by the Zen monk Shukan, the Itsukushima Shrine Two-Storied Pagoda sets a circular upper storey on a square base beneath a rare shingled roof.

Two bays by one and built of stacked logs, the Itsukushima Shrine Treasure House is the only building here whose walls carry themselves. Its contents left in 1934.

Raised in 1441 by a man named on its ridge tablet, this one-bay hall in the Miyajima town district breaks the symmetry of its carving slightly at the centre.

Vowed by Hideyoshi in 1587 and halted by his death, Senjokaku still has no ceiling boards and no front stairs, leaving its whole roof frame open to view.

Discover the Oku Family Residence (Oku-ke Jutaku) in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture—a beautifully preserved 1788 farmhouse and storehouse designated as a national Important Cultural Property. Explore its five-layered beam structure, rare internal storehouse, and the heritage of a village headman family in rural Japan.

Katsurahama Shrine's main hall on Kurahashi Island, near Kure, dates to 1480 by its ridge tag, a Muromachi hall rare in the region for round eaves pillars.

Dated to 1665 by an inscribed ridge tile, the Former Kihara Family Residence in Hiroshima housed sake-brewing salt merchants and keeps a rare early townhouse plan.

Kibitsu Shrine's main hall in Fukuyama, an Important Cultural Property rebuilt in 1648 by lord Mizuno Katsunari, is nearly 18.5 m wide with a Buddhist-hall interior.

Discover the Komyobo Thirteen-Story Stone Pagoda, an Important Cultural Property built in 1294 on Ikuchijima Island along the Shimanami Kaido. This 8.5-meter granite tower reflects the artistry and Buddhist devotion of the Kamakura period.

The gate of Saigoji in Onomichi, Hiroshima, is a plain munemon of the late 1300s, tile-roofed and listed in 1961. Two posts, one beam, and Muromachi carving above.

Saigoji's main hall in Onomichi, Hiroshima is the oldest surviving Jishu main hall in Japan, begun in 1353 and listed in 1961. Clap inside and the ceiling answers.

Rebuilt in 1386 under the Yamana governors of Bingo, Saikokuji Kondo in Onomichi crowns 108 stone steps, its wayo bracketing and tiled roof designated in 1913.

Given by shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori in 1429, Saikokuji's three-storey pagoda in Onomichi rises from a stone podium with no veranda, a rare revivalist wayo design.