Important cultural property

Sekishin-ji's main hall in Kusatsu, rebuilt around 1359, blends Japanese and Zen styles. It stands at Yabase, the Lake Biwa port behind the proverb isogaba maware.

Two granite five-ring pagodas at Ishidō-ji in Shiga, dated 1304 and 1349. The carved year-marks make this Important Cultural Property a rare dating anchor.

Discover the Important Cultural Property seven-story stone pagoda at Sekininji Temple in Higashiomi, Shiga. Built in 1318, this Kamakura-period monument is tied to the legendary Man'yōshū poet Yamabe no Akahito. Explore its history, significance, and visitor tips.

Discover the Sōkenji Three-Story Pagoda, an Important Cultural Property of Japan built in 1454 and relocated by Oda Nobunaga to Azuchi Castle. Explore its Muromachi-period architecture, rich history, and stunning hilltop setting overlooking Lake Biwa.

Discover the Daiichi Daidogawa Bridge, a designated Important Cultural Property in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture. Built in 1954, this pioneering prestressed concrete railway bridge still carries trains on the Shigaraki Kohgen Railway and stands as a milestone in Japanese civil engineering history.

The Main Hall of Daigyoji Shrine, located within the grounds of Enkoji Temple in Kunobe, Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, is a mid-Muromachi period (c. 1466) shrine built in the ikkensha nagare-zukuri style with a hinoki cypress bark roof. Designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan in 1943, this exquisite structure features refined transom carvings and ornamental panels. Together with Enkoji Temple's own Important Cultural Properties, the site offers a rare glimpse into the medieval tradition of shinbutsu-shūgō, the harmonious coexistence of Shinto and Buddhist worship.

Discover the Important Cultural Properties of Ganzanken and Rantei at Daitsuji Temple in Nagahama, Shiga. These Edo-period shoin halls feature sliding door paintings by Kano Sanraku, Kano Sansetsu, and Maruyama Okyo, with nationally designated scenic gardens incorporating Mt. Ibuki as borrowed scenery.

The Grand Hall (Hiroma) of Daitsuji Temple in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, is an Important Cultural Property of Japan believed to have originated as the formal audience chamber of Fushimi Castle. Its shoin-zukuri architecture and vivid Momoyama-era screen paintings by Kano school artists offer visitors an extraordinary window into Japan's feudal past. Discover the intertwined history of this Higashi Honganji branch temple and the powerful Ii clan of Hikone.

The Bell Tower at Chomeiji Temple in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1608. Featuring an elegant two-story hakama-goshi design with cypress bark roofing, it houses a medieval bronze bell and offers breathtaking panoramic views of Lake Biwa from its elevated hillside position within the 31st temple of the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

Chiyo Shrine in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, is home to a main hall (honden) designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan, built in 1638 during the early Edo period. As reportedly the only shrine in Japan enshrining Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto—the goddess of performing arts—as its principal deity, it attracts actors, musicians, and artists from across the country. The three-bay nagare-zukuri hall features exquisite polychrome carvings and lacquerwork, representing the finest of early Edo shrine architecture.

Tucked into the western foothills of the Suzuka Mountains in Higashiomi City, Shiga, the Main Hall of Hyakusai-ji Temple is an early Edo-period Buddhist hall completed in 1650 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004. Founded according to tradition by Prince Shōtoku in 606, this Tendai temple was rebuilt by the monk Ryōzan after Oda Nobunaga's destruction of the complex. The hall preserves the tripartite spatial order of medieval Buddhist halls while embracing early-modern aesthetics, and stands as one of the famed Three Mountain Temples east of Lake Biwa, celebrated for autumn foliage, the Thousand-Year Bodhi Tree, stone-paved approach, and the Garden of Distant Views.

Tucked into a quiet cedar grove in Yasu City, Shiga, the Hiyoshi Shrine Honden is a small but exquisitely preserved late-Kamakura main hall built in the single-bay nagare-zukuri style with hinoki-bark roof, designated an Important Cultural Property in 1944.

The Main Hall of Fudoji Temple stands near the summit of Mount Taijin in the Konan Alps of Otsu City, Shiga Prefecture. Built in the early Muromachi period using dramatic cliff construction (kake-zukuri), this Important Cultural Property clings to a massive granite boulder, with its principal image enshrined within the natural rock cavity behind the hall.

The Former Miyaji Family Residence, relocated to the Omi Fudoki no Oka historical park in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, is a mid-Edo period farmhouse originally built in 1754 in Kunitomo — one of Japan's most famous gun-manufacturing villages. Designated as a national Important Cultural Property in 1968, this thatched-roof dwelling preserves rare archaic features of the Kohoku regional building tradition, including earthen-floor living spaces. Located next to the Azuchi Castle Archaeological Museum, it can be visited alongside Azuchi Castle ruins and other Sengoku-era heritage sites.

Read over the body of Eigen-ji's founder the day after his death in 1367, this ink funeral elegy is an Important Cultural Property at the Shiga Zen temple he built.

An ink manuscript written at Eigen-ji in 1377, recording the Dharma address spoken as the Zen master Jakushitsu Genko was enshrined in the founder's hall.

Three scrolls at Eigen-ji, Shiga, recording the sermon and incense verse for the 33rd memorial of founder Jakushitsu Genko, held on his death anniversary in 1399.

A 1367 ink scroll preserves the verse chanted over incense at founder Jakushitsu Genkō's seventh-day rite, when his disciples resolved to keep Eigenji alive.

Two ink-on-paper scrolls hold a Zen sermon spoken at Eigenji in 1379 for the founder's thirteenth-anniversary memorial. An Important Cultural Property since 1936.

The Gyorekisho records the monk Enchin's 853 to 858 journey through Tang China. The Ishiyama-dera scroll is a Kamakura-period copy, an Important Cultural Property.