Important cultural property

Two bays by one and built of stacked logs, the Itsukushima Shrine Treasure House is the only building here whose walls carry themselves. Its contents left in 1934.

Raised in 1441 by a man named on its ridge tablet, this one-bay hall in the Miyajima town district breaks the symmetry of its carving slightly at the centre.

Vowed by Hideyoshi in 1587 and halted by his death, Senjokaku still has no ceiling boards and no front stairs, leaving its whole roof frame open to view.

Discover the Oku Family Residence (Oku-ke Jutaku) in Miyoshi, Hiroshima Prefecture—a beautifully preserved 1788 farmhouse and storehouse designated as a national Important Cultural Property. Explore its five-layered beam structure, rare internal storehouse, and the heritage of a village headman family in rural Japan.

Katsurahama Shrine's main hall on Kurahashi Island, near Kure, dates to 1480 by its ridge tag, a Muromachi hall rare in the region for round eaves pillars.

Dated to 1665 by an inscribed ridge tile, the Former Kihara Family Residence in Hiroshima housed sake-brewing salt merchants and keeps a rare early townhouse plan.

Kibitsu Shrine's main hall in Fukuyama, an Important Cultural Property rebuilt in 1648 by lord Mizuno Katsunari, is nearly 18.5 m wide with a Buddhist-hall interior.

Discover the Komyobo Thirteen-Story Stone Pagoda, an Important Cultural Property built in 1294 on Ikuchijima Island along the Shimanami Kaido. This 8.5-meter granite tower reflects the artistry and Buddhist devotion of the Kamakura period.

The gate of Saigoji in Onomichi, Hiroshima, is a plain munemon of the late 1300s, tile-roofed and listed in 1961. Two posts, one beam, and Muromachi carving above.

Saigoji's main hall in Onomichi, Hiroshima is the oldest surviving Jishu main hall in Japan, begun in 1353 and listed in 1961. Clap inside and the ceiling answers.

Rebuilt in 1386 under the Yamana governors of Bingo, Saikokuji Kondo in Onomichi crowns 108 stone steps, its wayo bracketing and tiled roof designated in 1913.

Given by shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori in 1429, Saikokuji's three-storey pagoda in Onomichi rises from a stone podium with no veranda, a rare revivalist wayo design.

Discover Shunpukan, the Important Cultural Property residence of Confucian scholar Rai Shunpu in Takehara, Hiroshima. Explore this elegant samurai-style townhouse connected to Rai Sanyo and Japan's Edo-period intellectual heritage.

Discover the World Peace Memorial Cathedral in Hiroshima, designed by Murano Togo in 1954. A symbol of peace built with global donations, it was the first postwar building designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan.

Discover the Hatayama Family Residence in Miyoshi, Hiroshima — a mid-18th century thatched-roof farmhouse designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan, featuring archaic construction techniques and a dramatic relocation story.

On Miyajima, this garden erosion-control works rebuilt a typhoon-hit valley as fieldstone dams and pools, Japan's first postwar civil-engineering cultural property.

Kenzo Tange completed this Takamatsu government office in 1958, recasting the columns and beams of Japanese tradition in concrete over an open civic piloti.

On a Kagawa hilltop that was once Nio Castle stands Kakujoin's two-storied bell tower, a Momoyama work with a flared hakamagoshi base, still rung each New Year.

Explore Kannon-ji Kondo, an Important Cultural Property in Kagawa Prefecture. This Edo-period main hall preserves Muromachi-era craftsmanship on Shikoku's 88 Temple Pilgrimage at the unique two-temple-in-one precinct.

An 18th-century farmhouse from southern Ehime, now at Shikoku Mura near Yashima. The whole raised floor is split bamboo, and a paper-mulberry kettle survives inside.