Important cultural property

Built in 1350 on Iwama-san in Misaki, Okayama, this Tendai hall mixes Japanese and Zen-style carpentry under a cypress-bark hip roof, an Important Cultural Property.

A granite torii at Honjo Hachimangu in Kurashiki, dated by inscription to 1421. This Important Cultural Property is a benchmark for early Muromachi stone gates.

Honren-ji's middle gate in Ushimado, Okayama, is a rare two-pillar munamon, valued for its unusual joinery and named an Important Cultural Property in 1970.

Honrenji Temple Banjindo in Setouchi City, Okayama, shelters three late Muromachi shrines under a single covering hall. Their dates, roof forms and how to visit.

Honrenji Temple Main Hall at Ushimado, Setouchi City, was rebuilt in 1492 and carries no bracket complexes. Its frame, its Korean envoy history, and how to visit it.

The Banjindo of Myohonji in Kibichuo, Okayama, built in the early Edo period, is a small one-bay shrine hall with a cusped gable over its front and a shingled roof.

The Former Morie Family Residence in Kagamino, Okayama, is a late 17th-century thatched farmhouse with a three-room plan and walls closed on three sides. Free entry.

The main hall of Yokeiji in Setouchi, Okayama, built in 1570, is a sturdy five-bay Tendai hall with an altar and shrine of the same age, a late Muromachi survival.

The main hall of Yoshikawa Hachiman Shrine in Kibichuo, Okayama, built in 1408, is a five-bay shingled hall at a shrine known for its Toban festival each October.

Preserved in Okayama Prefecture, this Important Cultural Property is a katana forged in 1674 by the legendary swordsmith Nagasone Kotetsu — one of the two yokozuna of the new sword era. Bearing a refined late-period Hakotora signature, with a 76.3 cm cutting edge and the celebrated juzuba temper line, this masterpiece descends through the Okudaira daimyo family.

The Kinzanji Monjo, preserved at the ancient temple of Kinzanji in the mountains north of Okayama City, is a collection of 52 documents in 7 scrolls designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1969. Spanning more than 430 years from the late Heian to the early Edo period, the archive includes provincial governor confirmations, shogunate and Rokuhara Tandai orders, and land donation deeds. The attached Kinzan Kannon-in Engi records the lives of founder Hoon Daishi and Eisai, founder of Japanese Rinzai Zen, offering a vivid window onto how a regional temple navigated medieval Japan's shifting powers.

A National Important Cultural Property owned by Hokoji Temple in Ushimado, Setouchi City, Okayama. This rare early Muromachi triptych pairs Acala with the Thirty-Six Boys at center and the Diamond Realm and Womb Realm Mandalas to either side—a vivid encapsulation of Shingon esoteric devotion on silk.

Preserved at Chofuku-ji Temple in Mimasaka City, Okayama Prefecture, the Two-Realms Mandala on Silk is a pair of hanging scrolls painted during the Nanboku-cho period of the 14th century, designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan in 1901. Each scroll measures approximately 165 by 125 centimeters and represents a remarkable survival of medieval esoteric Buddhist art at a regional mountain temple, depicting the Diamond and Womb Realms of the Shingon cosmos with finely drawn iconography and rich mineral pigments.

The Sansai Jar reportedly excavated in Okayama Prefecture is a Japanese Important Cultural Property dating to the first half of the eighth century. Held by the Kurashiki Archaeological Museum in the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter, it was reportedly discovered around 1904 in a lateral-chamber stone tomb near Tsuyama City, together with a ceramic coffin. Standing 21.3 centimeters tall with a maximum body diameter of 25.3 centimeters, the medicine-jar-shaped vessel is decorated with a luminous combination of green, amber, and clear lead glazes laid over a white slip ground — a luxurious technique known as Nara sansai, modeled after Chinese Tang sansai. Only a handful of comparable large Nara-period three-color jars are known to survive nationwide. That this courtly treasure was used as a cremation container in a provincial ancestral tomb makes it a remarkable witness to the human and cultural ties that linked the eighth-century capital with the regions of ancient Japan.

The library of the commoners' school at Shizutani: 4,041 books and objects from the Bunko of 1677, an Important Cultural Property at the Okayama Prefectural Museum.

Discover the Wooden Senju Kannon and Two Attendant Statues of Mio-ji Temple in Niimi City, Okayama — a Kamakura-period three-figure ensemble of national importance, designated as far back as 1901. Explore the artistic value of the central Senju Kannon, the dynamic flanking figures of Fudo Myo-o and Bishamonten, the temple's Muromachi-era main hall, and nearby attractions in northern Okayama.

The last potter's homestead in Naha's Tsuboya district, with a 22.7m nine-chamber climbing kiln. Designated in 2002; part of the site opens Fri to Sun and holidays.

Built in 1687, Ie Udun Baka is the tomb of a Ryukyu royal branch family and a rare securely dated turtleback tomb, an Important Cultural Property since 1999.

Home of a Ryukyuan gentry family on Kume Island, built about 1754 inside limestone walls and fukugi trees. Designated in 1972; visits by advance reservation only.

The former Ogimi village office of 1925 in northern Okinawa, built against typhoons and termites, is the oldest surviving reinforced-concrete building in Okinawa.