Important cultural property

Discover the Important Cultural Property ceramics excavated from the Motoyashiki kiln site in Toki City, Gifu Prefecture. Explore exquisite Oribe, Shino, Ki-Seto, and Seto-Guro wares that reveal the golden age of Japanese tea ceremony ceramics.

Preserved at Entoku-ji Temple in Gifu City, the Rakuichi-Rakuza Seisatsu is a set of four original wooden placards (with one attached) issued by Oda Nobunaga and the Ikeda lords between 1567 and 1584. Posted at the gate of the Kanō market just after Nobunaga renamed Inabayama Castle to Gifu, they survive in remarkable physical form. Designated a Nationally Important Cultural Property in 1993, they are a primary source at the heart of Japan's economic history.

Discover a life-sized early Kamakura-period bronze statue of Akasagarbha Bodhisattva — a nationally designated Important Cultural Property preserved with its original canopy and halo in the remote mountain village of Itoshiro, Gifu. Once the sacred body of Hakusan Chukyo Shrine, this masterpiece embodies the flourishing of Hakusan mountain faith.

A pair of stone komainu at Hiyoshi Shrine in Gōdo, Gifu, designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Donated in 1577 by the Sengoku warlord Fuwa Mitsuharu and carved from the famed blue-green Shakudani stone of Echizen, this slender, inscribed pair is a masterpiece of Momoyama-era sculpture.

Gifu's Nagataki Hakusan Shrine holds 27 wooden masks from late Kamakura to late Edo — Okina, Sanbasō, kishin and rare hanataka faces of Hakusan worship.

Kurasaki Lighthouse, standing on the southern tip of Oshima Island off Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture, is Japan's oldest surviving unreinforced concrete lighthouse, completed in 1884. Designed by pioneering Japanese engineer Fujikura Kentatsu, it was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 2024. Discover its distinctive dodecagonal tower, dramatic clifftop setting, and the adventure of reaching this remote island beacon.

Koda Shrine's main hall in Miyazaki is a rare medieval shrine in southern Kyushu, dated by ridge tags to 1448 and restored to its red-lacquer and gold-leaf finish.

Kodama Shrine's inner sanctuary in Miyakonojo is Miyazaki's oldest dated wooden building, a 1399 Buddhist tabernacle saved by villagers during the Meiji purges.

Takachiho Shrine's 1778 main hall in highland Miyazaki is a grand five-bay nagare-zukuri in plain zelkova, carved with dragons, a phoenix, and a local hero's legend.

Shiiba's Nasu Family Residence, an 1823 Important Cultural Property, is 25 meters long yet one room deep, and known as Tsurutomi Yashiki after a Genpei-era legend.

Dated to 1787 by a carved post inscription, this is Miyazaki's oldest documented farmhouse: no doma, just two board-floored rooms in an archaic mountain plan.

Nestled deep in the mountains of Misato Town, Miyazaki Prefecture, the main hall of Mikado Shrine is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1661 in the rare seven-bay nagare-zukuri style. Enshrining Prince Jeongga of the ancient Korean kingdom of Baekje, the shrine preserves bronze mirrors identical to those in the Nara Shōsōin Repository. Together with the adjacent Nishi no Shōsōin and Hall of Baekje, it offers a unique window into ancient Japan-Korea cultural exchange.

Discover Kōzōji Amida Hall in Kakuda, Miyagi Prefecture — an Important Cultural Property built in 1177 by the wife of Fujiwara Hidehira. As the oldest wooden building in Miyagi and one of only three surviving Heian-period structures in Tōhoku, this thatched-roof Buddhist hall offers a rare glimpse into the spiritual world of the Northern Fujiwara clan.

Discover the Former Sato Family Residence in Kakuda, Miyagi Prefecture — a nationally designated Important Cultural Property showcasing a mid-18th century Tohoku farmhouse with thatched roof, torii-date pillars, and authentic Edo-period rural living.

Perched on Ichimoriyama overlooking Matsushima Bay in Miyagi Prefecture, Shiogama Shrine has been revered as the first-ranked shrine of ancient Mutsu Province for over a thousand years. Begun in 1695 by the fourth Sendai lord Date Tsunamura and completed in 1704 under his successor Date Yoshimura, fourteen halls and a stone torii were designated Important Cultural Properties in 2002. The shrine is celebrated for its rare layout enshrining three deities in three sanctuaries and for the masterful contrast between its restrained main halls and ornate gates—an outstanding example of mid-Edo shrine architecture.

Cast in 1326 for Enpuku-ji Temple in Matsushima, the Unpan at Zuiganji is a rare Kamakura-period bronze gong shaped like a cloud, used to summon Zen monks. Discover this Important Cultural Property at the Seiryuden Treasure Hall.

Standing at the southern tip of Oshima Island in Matsushima, Miyagi Prefecture, the Oshu Mishima Raiken Stele is a slate monument over three meters tall, erected in 1307 by more than thirty disciples to honor the monk Raiken, who never left the island during twenty-two years of solitary practice. Its 643 characters of cursive script were both composed and brushed by the celebrated Chinese émigré monk Issan Ichinei. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1955, it is one of the finest dated cursive stone inscriptions surviving from the late Kamakura period.

A complete polished jadeite axe from the Kamegaoka Site in Aomori, now housed at Miyagi's Tōhoku History Museum. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1973, this 9 cm masterpiece reveals Jōmon-era craftsmanship and the vast trade network that carried Itoigawa jadeite across ancient Japan.

Originally preserved as a sacred treasure in an Ainu household in Hidaka, Hokkaido, this silver-mounted Kamakura-period tachi survives as a rare early example of Ezo-style ceremonial swords. Held by the Tohoku History Museum in Tagajo, Miyagi.

The Ebisu hall at Ishida Shrine in Ayabe is northern Kyoto's oldest shrine building, raised in 1311 and dated by its ridge tag, with rare early Zen-style detail.