Important cultural property
重 要 文 化 財 一 覧Explore Japan’s Important Cultural Properties in one searchable list. Filter by prefecture, period, and category, read concise stories, and plan visits with maps and travel tips.
Discover the Former Gofukuza Theater, an Important Cultural Property at Museum Meiji-Mura in Inuyama, Aichi. This Meiji-era kabuki playhouse features a revolving stage, naraku underpass, and traditional Edo-period theater architecture.
Discover the Mausoleum of Genkei-kō, the final resting place of Tokugawa Yoshinao, founder of the Owari Domain. This Important Cultural Property in Seto, Aichi features rare Confucian-style architecture designed by Chinese émigré Chen Yuanyun, with seven designated structures set amid ancient cedar forests.
Discover the Koshoji Five-Story Pagoda, a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1808. Located in Nagoya's Yagoto district, this elegant late Edo-period wooden pagoda is the only one remaining in the entire Tokai region.
Discover Kouden-ji Main Hall in Kitanagoya, Aichi — a stunning Muromachi-period Buddhist temple designated as an Important Cultural Property. Explore its cypress bark roof, secret Yakushi Nyorai statue, Enkū carvings, and Shinto-Buddhist fusion heritage.
Discover the Former Saigo Tsugumichi Residence, an Important Cultural Property at Museum Meiji-mura in Aichi. This French-designed Western mansion built in the 1880s blends European elegance with Japanese earthquake-resistant techniques, offering a rare glimpse into Meiji-era elite diplomacy and lifestyle.
Completed in 1898 in central Sapporo, the Former Sapporo Telephone Exchange is a two-story stone building that housed Hokkaido's first telephone exchange operations. Built with locally quarried Sapporo soft stone in an elegant Renaissance-inspired style, it is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Now preserved at Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, it features an interactive exhibition on the history of telephone communication in Japan.
At Sanmyo-ji in Toyokawa City rises a 14.5-meter pagoda rebuilt in 1531. Its lower stories follow the Japanese style; the third turns to the Zen style, a rare mix.
Inside Sanmyo-ji's main hall in Toyokawa City stands a wooden tabernacle for the Benzaiten image. Built in 1554, it takes the form of a Shinto shrine sanctuary.
In Ama City west of Nagoya stands the two-storied South Gate of Jimokuji, the city's oldest wooden building, designated in 1900, with guardian statues below.
A two-storied tahoto at Shokaiji in Inazawa, Aichi, from the mid-Muromachi period. Its bracketing blends two imported styles; the grounds are famed for hydrangeas.
The main hall of Jokoji in Seto, Aichi, known as Muiden. A Zen-style hall of 1493 with a skirting pent roof, it stands below the first Owari lord's mausoleum.
The Former Shoden-in Shoin in Urakuen, Inuyama, Aichi, built around 1618 as a retreat for the tea master Oda Urakusai. It stands beside the Jo-an teahouse.
The Kannon hall of Shinkomyoji in Okazaki, Aichi, built in 1478. A Zen-style hall at a Pure Land temple founded by the Matsudaira, ancestors of Tokugawa Ieyasu.
A lighthouse keeper's quarters of 1873, built under British engineer R. H. Brunton beside the Sugashima Lighthouse in Mie. The brick house now stands at Meiji Mura.
Built in 1902 to reconnect the Kiso and Nagara rivers after Meiji works divided them, this brick lock still raises and lowers boats and is among Japan's earliest.
Daiju-ji's tahoto in Okazaki, Aichi, was built in 1535 by Matsudaira Kiyoyasu, grandfather of Tokugawa Ieyasu. Its square lower story meets a round upper drum.
Takisanji's two-story gate near Okazaki, an Important Cultural Property since 1901, keeps a medieval temple-gate form, dated between 1267 and early Muromachi.
Takisan-ji's main hall in Okazaki, Aichi, is a cypress-bark-roofed esoteric Buddhist hall of the early Muromachi period, and the stage for a winter fire festival.
Ordered by the third shogun Iemitsu and finished in 1646, Takisan Tosho-gu in Okazaki keeps its main hall, gate and other buildings in vivid lacquer and colour.
At Choko-ji in Inazawa stands a rare hexagonal hall of 1510, regarded as the only surviving medieval example of its form, with a Kamakura-period iron Jizo within.