Meiji

Standing in Kobe's Suma Seaside Park, the Former Wadamisaki Lighthouse is Japan's oldest surviving iron lighthouse, built in 1884. Known affectionately as the 'Red Lighthouse of Suma,' this Registered Tangible Cultural Property tells the story of Japan's opening to the world and its early modernization.

Standing directly in front of the east exit of JR Ikuno Station, Kusaka Ryokan is a wooden two-story inn with a three-story wing, built in 1910 and expanded in 1921. As one of only a couple of wooden three-story buildings to have stood along the rail line between Himeji and Kinosaki, it is a remarkably rare survivor and was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2004. Its sukiya-style tatami parlors and crane- and cloud-shaped openwork windows offer a vivid glimpse of refined Meiji- and Taisho-era inn architecture in Kuchiganaya, the historic silver mining town of Ikuno.

Kuniumi-no-Yakata, the former Mihara County Office, stands within Awaji Farm Park England Hill in Minamiawaji City, Hyogo Prefecture. Built in 1884 (Meiji 17), it is the oldest surviving county office building in Hyogo and the earliest pseudo-Western (gi-yofu) building on Awaji Island. The wooden two-story structure features a gabled tile roof, clapboard siding with imitation cornerstones, and a striking front porch with paired square and round columns supporting a relief-decorated pediment — all expressions of how Meiji-era Japanese carpenters reinterpreted Western architecture. Damaged in the 1995 Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake, the building was carefully reconstructed at its current site in 2007 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

Discover the Kuroda Seiuemon Shoten Miso Storehouse, a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Miki City, Hyogo. Part of an 11-building complex belonging to the oldest surviving hardware wholesaler in Japan's premier tool-making town, this mid-Meiji storehouse offers a rare window into traditional merchant life.

Built in 1904 as the first chapel of Kwansei Gakuin, this red-brick Gothic Revival building designed by British architect M. Wignall has survived wartime bombing and a major earthquake to become a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Featuring a rare hammer-beam truss roof and grapevine-patterned windows, it now serves as a free-admission literature museum showcasing approximately 124 writers connected to Kobe.

The north wall of the Konishi Family Residence in Amagasaki, Hyogo, runs about 30 metres. Its late-Meiji brick core has a scraped-mortar face and a tiled top.

The 1911 main house of the Konishi Family Residence in Amagasaki, Hyogo, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property with a broad tiled irimoya roof.

The sunagura storehouse of the Konishi Family Residence in Amagasaki, Hyogo, is a plastered two-storey dozo of about 1904, now a Registered Property.

The barn of the Konishi Family Residence in Amagasaki, Hyogo, is a long single-storey timber building of the late Meiji era, now a Registered Property.

The west stone wall of the Konishi Family Residence in Amagasaki, Hyogo, runs about 50 metres of late-Meiji granite, laid five courses high with capstones.

The gate of the Konishi Family Residence in Amagasaki, Hyogo, is a late-Meiji timber structure with a tiled gable roof, twin doors and a side wicket door.

Discover the Sanda Gakuen Junior High School Main Building, a beautifully preserved 1912 wooden schoolhouse in Hyogo Prefecture. Designed in Stick Style and modeled after England's Eton College, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property continues to function as an active school more than a century after its completion.

The front gate and wall of the Takatsu residence near Himeji, a gabled munemon with white-plaster walls. A frog-leg strut supports the ridge, marking it as formal.

The kitchen and well area of the Takatsu residence near Himeji, an L-shaped service block on the road corner where a kitchen wing meets a well wing.

The tool storehouse of the Takatsu residence near Himeji, an early-Meiji plastered dozo with shippo-pattern namako tilework. It is the oldest of the five buildings.

The main house of the Takatsu family, doctors near Himeji since the late Edo period. Built around 1894, it has a rare kara-hafu entrance gable and a former clinic wing.

The garden gate and wall of the Takatsu residence near Himeji, a bracket-arm gate dividing the forecourt from the reception garden. It is the newest of the five.

A large late-Meiji earthen storehouse on the Nishio grounds in Sasayama, on a granite base with plaster up to the eaves. Once a brewery store, now a museum and gallery.

Zuihō Bridge is a graceful granite drum bridge spanning the sacred pond of Nishinomiya Shrine, Japan's foremost Ebisu shrine, in Hyogo Prefecture. Donated in 1907 by the founder of Hakutaka Sake Brewery and enhanced with bronze balustrades in 1922, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property embodies the deep connection between Nishinomiya's renowned Nada sake-brewing heritage and its most sacred place of worship.

The dosho-sha of Nishinomiya Jinja is a tiny one-bay building on the approach, its four faces filled with diamond lattice. Built in 1904, it is the oldest of the six.