Important Cultural Property of Hyogo

Jodo-ji Yakushido in Ono City, Hyogo Prefecture, is the principal hall of a storied temple founded by the monk Chogen. Designated an Important Cultural Property, this Muromachi-period structure rebuilt in 1517 is celebrated as a rare example of the eclectic style blending Japanese, Zen, and Daibutsu traditions, standing in dignified counterpoint to the National Treasure Jodo-do.

Located in Tanigawa, Sannan-cho, Tamba City, Hyogo Prefecture, the Main Hall of Takakura Shrine was built in 1705 by local craftsmen and designated a national Important Cultural Property in 2018. One of the largest Edo-period shrine main halls in the Tamba region, it features a distinctive layered roof and exquisite polychrome carvings that reward unhurried exploration.

Takameu Shrine Main Hall in Sanda, Hyogo, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property rebuilt in 1513 during the late Muromachi period. This single-bay nagare-zukuri sanctuary, crowned with a hiwadabuki cypress-bark roof, displays exquisite floral carvings throughout, and houses a Kamakura-period wooden komainu pair from 1297, also a national Important Cultural Property.

Jōonji, a Nichiren temple in Amagasaki's Teramachi quarter, holds two Important Cultural Properties: a 1623 Main Hall and the city's only tahōtō, a 1607 pagoda.

A small bell tower stands by Chōkō-ji's National Treasure main hall in Kato City. Its late-Kamakura hip roof on a flared hakamagoshi base is rarely seen.

The vermilion Red Gate of Nishinomiya Shrine in Hyogo, a Momoyama four-legged gate flanked by a famous earthen wall, is the stage for the New Year fuku-otoko run.

Nyoi-ji's Amida Hall in Kobe, an early Kamakura building regarded as the city's oldest, has a lattice-shuttered front and an Amida statue of the same age inside.

Built in 1385 and dated by an inscription on its finial, the Nyoiji pagoda is Hyogo's second-oldest, a Tendai tower near Kobe enshrining three Buddhas.

Dated to 1453 by ink inscriptions on its timbers, the Monju-do at Nyoi-ji in Kobe rises from a hillside on a raised floor, standing beside two more medieval halls.

Completed in 1900 and still in use, Kobe's Gohonmatsu Dam was Japan's first gravity concrete water-supply dam, the core of nine Meiji structures listed in 2006.

Discover Hasedera Myokendo, an Important Cultural Property in Tamba Sasayama, Hyogo. This elegant Muromachi-era shrine hall features refined nagare-zukuri architecture and over 600 years of history.

The Former Hunter House, located within the Kobe Oji Zoo in Nada Ward, is the largest surviving foreign residence (ijinkan) in Kobe and a nationally designated Important Cultural Property. Originally built around 1889 and extensively renovated by British industrialist Edward Hazlett Hunter in 1907, this Victorian-era timber-and-brick mansion features a stunning colonnade veranda with diamond-lattice windows, marble mantelpieces, teak floors, and English stained glass.

The Main Hall of Hiide Shrine in Hatayama, Tanto-cho, Toyooka City, Hyogo Prefecture, is a sangensha nagare-zukuri shrine building with a kokera-buki roof dating from the late Muromachi period. Designated as a national Important Cultural Property in 1970, it enshrines Tajimahitaka no Kami, a descendant of the legendary Amenohiboko. With no protective enclosure, the hall offers visitors a direct encounter with medieval shrine architecture, including distinctive funa-hijiki brackets and mitsudo-gumi bracket sets.

Tucked within the main hall of Sumadera (Fukushō-ji) in Kobe's Suma district is an Important Cultural Property completed in 1368: a three-bay miniature shrine set upon a tiered altar that unusually combines Chinese-style (karayō) and Japanese-style (wayō) architecture in a single composition. Standing near the famed Genpei battlefield of Ichi-no-Tani, this extraordinary early-Muromachi ensemble has been carefully preserved for over six and a half centuries.

The Funayakata, an Important Cultural Property standing beside the pond at Sorakuen Garden in Kobe, is the preserved upper cabin of a river pleasure boat (kawagozafune) once used by the Honda lords of Himeji Domain in the mid-Edo period. Finished in lacquer and gold leaf, it is the sole surviving example of a river-type gozabune cabin in Japan—an irreplaceable window into an aquatic daimyō culture that has vanished everywhere else.

The Furui Family Residence, known as "Sennen-ya" (Thousand-Year House), is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property located in Yasutomi, Himeji City, Hyogo Prefecture. Dating to the late Muromachi period, it is counted among Japan's three great thousand-year houses, featuring bamboo slatted floors, adze-finished timbers, and the legendary fire-quenching Turtle Stone.

Explore the Nagato Province Coin-Casting Artifacts, Important Cultural Properties from Japan's Nara period. These coin molds, crucibles, and bellows nozzles from the Nagato Mint reveal the origins of Wadō Kaichin, Japan's first official currency.

A Kamakura-period scroll at Ichijō-ji in Kasai, Hyōgo, in colour on silk, shows Amida Nyorai. An Important Cultural Property since 1908, it is rarely shown.

A silk scroll at Kōkyūji in Himeji shows Kanakavatsa, second of the Sixteen Arhats. A Nanbokuchō-period work, it has been an Important Cultural Property since 1917.

A Kamakura-period scroll at Tōsen Shrine in Arima near Kobe, this Kumano mandala maps the gods and buddhas of Kumano's three shrines onto silk. Protected since 1904.