Edo

Discover the Kaei Bridge at Nishinomiya Shrine, a registered cultural property built in 1848 by sake brewers leading to Matsuo Shrine. Explore this elegant granite bridge in Nada Gogō, Japan's most renowned sake-producing region.

Raised in 1628 with backing from the lord of Himeji, this nine-bay hall juts from a wooded hillside on timber posts, its ceiling packed with pilgrim slips.

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.

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.

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.

A modest wing where the retired head of the Otoshi household lived. Set along the north-east wall, it pairs a six-mat room with a four-mat anteroom. Registered 1999.

This grain store sits where the estate's south-east and south-west faces meet, sharing one roof with the adjoining carpenter's room. Its street face is board-clad.

A relatively large rice store in the south garden, its entrance flanked by namako lattice-plaster walls. A slightly offset ridge hints it may predate the 1835 main house.

Built in 1835 for the great headman of the lower Kakogawa, this 455-square-metre, hip-and-gable-roofed house heads a nine-building compound registered in 1999.

A small tea room off the veranda of the main house, pairing a three-mat tea space with a two-mat preparation area. A copper eave shades its south side. Registered 1999.

This range on the estate's south-east street edge sets a central gate between a storehouse-like block and service rooms; its plaster and boarded walls shape the street.

A small plaster store on the north-west wall by the detached wing. Gable-entered and just 17 square metres, it is the smallest of the nine, holding household utensils.

A closed plaster storehouse at the corner where the estate's north-east and north-west edges meet. Three by two bays, it held household utensils with the west store.

Discover the Uchi-Ōkura, a registered tangible cultural property within the Kajihara estate in Ōshio, Himeji. This Edo-period earthen storehouse reflects the prosperity of salt industry landowners in Hyogo Prefecture.

Discover the Kajiwara Family Residence Storehouse in Himeji's Oshio district, an Edo-period earthen storehouse registered as a Tangible Cultural Property. Built in 1842 by a prominent salt-field owning family, it features elegant white plaster walls and fine decorative plasterwork.

The Yagi family's household storehouse at Himeji, the only building on the site firmly dated to 1846, a two-story mud-walled store with a raised-beam roof.

Main house of the Yagi family, hereditary headmen on the Ibo River in Himeji, a large single-story farmhouse under a hip-and-gable roof, registered in 2021.

A two-story mud-walled storehouse in the Yagi compound at Himeji. Its west half is a shoin parlor for receiving domain officials, its east half a plain store.

The rice granary of the Yagi family, who held the annual tax rice at Himeji. This two-story mud-walled store sits by a former waterway for loading by boat.

The gatehouse of the Yagi compound at Himeji. Behind its formal tiled facade with a wicket door lay the estate's counting room to the west and a cattle shed.