Important cultural property

Built in 1523 in Omoto Park, this three-bay hall carries a long-board roof laid six deep in three courses, a covering with no other surviving example in Japan.

Late Muromachi and entered from the gable, this hall has a roof sweep close to straight where every neighbour curves, and its worship space doubles as a corridor.

Built by Mori Takamoto in 1556, this is the one hall at Itsukushima left as bare timber with plaster walls, and a rare survival of a Muromachi renga poetry hall.

Built in 1523 by the Zen monk Shukan, the Itsukushima Shrine Two-Storied Pagoda sets a circular upper storey on a square base beneath a rare shingled roof.

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.

The estate of a village headman family in Miyoshi, Hiroshima, whose 1788 main house became an Important Cultural Property in 1978, with a rare internal storehouse.

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.

Thirteen-tiered granite pagoda of 1294 at Komyobo on Ikuchijima, Onomichi, Hiroshima, 8.5 metres high and said to be erected by the monk Ninsho; free to visit.

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.

House of Rai Shunpu, uncle of Rai San'yo, in Takehara, Hiroshima: five buildings including an 1855 main house and gatehouse in a samurai-style layout.

Six Edo-period buildings at Jodoji Temple, Onomichi: the 1690 Hojo, Karamon, guest hall, storehouse, rear gate and the Rotekian tea house linked to Hideyoshi.

Jodoji Temple Amida Hall in Onomichi was built in 1345 as the temple's main hall. A hipped-roof wayo hall; see how it differs from its neighbor and how to enter.

Jodoji Temple Main Gate in Onomichi is a 14th-century four-legged gate with the Ashikaga crest in its gables and eaves matching the Main Hall porch. What to see.