Meiji

Located in Ushiku, Ibaraki, the former brewery of Château Kamiya was completed in 1903 as Japan's first authentic wine château, founded by entrepreneur Kamiya Denbei. The Storage Cellar and Fermentation Room — brick structures designed around Bordeaux techniques and a gravity-fed vertical workflow — form the production heart of the complex, with twenty-six massive fermentation barrels still in place. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 2008, the buildings now welcome visitors as the Kamiya Denbei Memorial Hall, free of charge.

On the dramatic cliffs of Izura in northern Ibaraki stands the former residence and garden of Okakura Tenshin (1862–1913), the thinker who shaped modern Japanese art. Visitors can see his self-designed home, the vermilion Hexagonal Hall (Rokkakudō) rebuilt after the 2011 tsunami, a moss-and-pine garden, and the sweeping Pacific bays of Daigoura and Shōgoura — a National Registered Monument of rare cultural and scenic value.

Tucked away in the historic post town of Takabu in Hitachiomiya City, Ibaraki, Yokoen is a pond-and-stroll garden created by sake brewer Okayama Sentaro in the mid-Meiji era. Modeled on Mito's famed Kobuntei pavilion at Kairakuen, the garden and its three-story Kiu-tei pavilion are designated nationally registered cultural properties.

The miso storehouse of the Iwase residence in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, a former headman's estate, is a two-storey timber store with deep lean-to eaves and white plaster.

The Ushioda sodegura is a tall storehouse adjoining the shop, gable to the street. Built in 1912, a door opens to the shop counter, forming one unified merchant frontage.

The Ushioda villa is a wooden hanare linked to the shop by a corridor. Built in early Meiji, it is a refined sukiya reception room with alcove, shelves and a shoin bay.

The black-plastered shop storehouse of the Ushioda kimono merchants stands on a Makabe corner. Built in 1910, it was the old town's first registered cultural property.

The Ushioda wakigura stands set back north of the shop and wing. Dated to 1897 or earlier, it is the oldest of the four and served the private life of the merchant house.

Located in the historic merchant district of Yuki City, Ibaraki Prefecture, the Kinuya Pharmacy Store is a small but elegantly crafted two-story wooden misegura (storehouse-shop) from the mid-Meiji period. With its plastered side walls, gabled tile roof, and traditional shop front, it forms part of a remarkable cluster of registered cultural properties along the old textile-trading street, recognized in 2006 for its contribution to Japan's historic landscape.

The Former Inada Family Residence Red Brick Storehouse in Hitachi-Ota City, Ibaraki Prefecture, is a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in 1910 by the prosperous sake brewing family Inadaya. This rare three-story Meiji-era brick storehouse features exquisite timber framing by master shrine carpenter Tatsukichi Saito and distinctive black lacquer plaster doors, now serving as a community art gallery on the historic Kujira-ga-Oka (Whale Hill).

Discover the Former Onoseke Residence Main House, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Ryugasaki, Ibaraki. This elegant Meiji-era wooden home reveals the lifestyle of a prosperous dried-sardine merchant family that shaped the region's economic history.

Discover the Former Machiya Substation (Kyu Machiya Hendensho), a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Hitachiota, Ibaraki. This Meiji-era red brick substation is one of the earliest power-generation heritage sites in the prefecture, also known as an NHK drama filming location.

Discover the Gokiso Brick Warehouse, a registered tangible cultural property in Joso City, Ibaraki. Built in 1882 by the wealthy Gokita merchant family, this three-story brick storehouse stands as a striking reminder of the prosperous river trade along the Kinugawa River.

The Suzuki Shinpei Shoten Misegura is a two-story dozo-zukuri merchant storehouse built in 1883 in the silk-trading town of Yuki, Ibaraki Prefecture. Originally the shopfront of a kimono fabric wholesaler founded by a family that migrated from Kanazawa, this typical Edo-style misegura was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2014, together with its bunko-gura and zashiki-to.

The Suzuki Boseki Main House in northern Yuki, Ibaraki, is a registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, built in 1906 alongside its companion storefront warehouse. Two surviving ridge tags record its construction details, and the building forms part of one of the Kanto region's finest surviving Meiji-era merchant streetscapes.

The Suzuki Boseki Misegura in Yuki City, Ibaraki Prefecture, is a Meiji-era shop-storehouse built in 1906 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Its unusual asymmetric roof — hipped on the right and gabled on the left — reflects the prosperity of Yuki as a silk-trading town famed for Yuki-tsumugi. Still in active use as the head office of Suzuki Boseki Co., Ltd., it embodies the principle of living heritage preservation.

Standing on Kamishuku-dōri in the historic town of Makabe (Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture), the Tsukamoto Family Residence Gate is a wooden yakuimon built in 1907. Its gabled pantile roof and 2.8 m frontage form an integral part of the streetscape alongside the family's shop storehouse, earthen storehouse, and black plank fence. It was listed as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2004.

The Tsukamoto Tea Shop Side Warehouse is a two-story earthen-walled storehouse built in the mid-Meiji period, located along Ojin'ya-mae-dōri in Makabe, Sakuragawa City, Ibaraki Prefecture. Registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it still serves as a tea leaf storage facility today. Discover merchant heritage in Makabe's Important Preservation District, home to over 100 registered cultural properties.

The Nakamura main house at Makabe, Sakuragawa, is an early-Meiji reception hall deep in a walled estate, its innermost room holding a full shoin alcove and shelves.

The Nakamura document storehouse at Makabe, Sakuragawa, is a Meiji clay vault that stacks three low floors on just 26 square metres to guard family papers from fire.