Important cultural property

At the Chido Museum in Tsuruoka, this Muromachi domaru is said to have been worn by Tokugawa retainer Sakai Tadatsugu. Laced in purple, crimson and white.

This Muromachi haramaki at Uesugi Shrine in Yonezawa fastens at the back and bears an Izuna Gongen helmet crest. By tradition, Uesugi Kenshin's armor.

A rare colored map of Senami District in northern Echigo, drawn by 1597 from the Uesugi land surveys and recovered, damaged, from a Yonezawa storehouse in 1707.

Volume five of Gyonen's autograph commentary on the Kegon Kumokusho, written at Todai-ji in 1286. An Important Cultural Property, now kept unseen in Yamagata.

At Uesugi Shrine in Yonezawa, a 41.5 cm straight blade bears the seven stars and Sanskrit syllables in gold and silver inlay. A rare sword linked to Uesugi Kenshin.

Three Goryeo-dynasty scrolls dated 1309, owned by Uesugi Shrine in Yonezawa and designated an Important Cultural Property. Stolen in 1987, the set remains missing.

Ima-Hachimangu Romon is a gate you cannot walk through; its floored wings serve as the worship hall. The Muromachi Ouchi-era gate is an Important Cultural Property.

On the wooded summit of Mount Iwaki in Yamaguchi, this Shinto hall dates to 1469. Its hip-and-gable front, gable rear, and carved struts show late Muromachi craft.

The Ube City Watanabe-O Memorial Hall (1937), an Important Cultural Property by Murano Togo, was built by seven local firms to honor industrialist Watanabe Yusaku.

Discover Gatsurinji Yakushido, an Important Cultural Property in Yamaguchi City. Built in 1189 by the monk Chogen during the reconstruction of Todai-ji, this thatched-roof hall is the oldest surviving wooden structure in Yamaguchi Prefecture.

Discover Kikuya Family Residence in Hagi, Yamaguchi — one of Japan's oldest surviving merchant houses with five Important Cultural Property buildings, Edo-period gardens, and 500+ historical artifacts in a UNESCO World Heritage castle town.

The Former Onoda Cement Manufacturing Company Vertical Kiln (Tokkuri-gama) in Sanyo-Onoda City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is Japan's only surviving cement-firing vertical kiln, built in 1883. Designated as a National Important Cultural Property and registered as a Mirai Technology Heritage, this brick industrial monument tells the story of Japan's first private cement company and the nation's path to modernization. Free admission year-round.

Built in 1906, the Former British Consulate at Shimonoseki is Japan's oldest surviving consulate building, a Queen Anne design by British architect William Cowan.

The Kokubunji Kondo in Hofu, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is an Important Cultural Property Buddhist hall rebuilt in 1779 by Mori Shigetaka, lord of the Choshu Domain. As the Golden Hall of the only provincial temple in Japan that preserves its original Tenpyo-era temple grounds, it has stood on the same site for over 1,250 years, inheriting its original Nara-period foundation stones. Inside, approximately 50 Buddhist statues including Important Cultural Property-designated images are enshrined.

Shikairō in Kaminoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property — a rare four-story wooden pseudo-Western building constructed in 1879 by Meiji Restoration veteran Ogata Kenkurō. Featuring white plastered walls, French stained glass, and exquisite plaster relief sculptures of dragons and phoenixes, this free-admission gem offers a unique fusion of Japanese and Western artistry with panoramic Seto Inland Sea views from the top floor.

The front gate of Jonenji Temple in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property dating to the Momoyama period. Temple tradition holds that it was originally the rear gate of Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Jurakudai palace in Kyoto, later donated to the temple by Mōri Terumoto in 1633. Discover this hidden architectural gem featuring bold timber framing and vigorous Momoyama-era carvings in the historic castle town of Hagi.

Daishōin in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is one of two mausoleum temples of the Mōri lords of the Hagi domain. Its Main Hall, Kuri, Shoin, Bell Tower Gate, and Sutra Repository — rebuilt in the mid-eighteenth century after a fire — are all Important Cultural Properties of Japan. The adjoining Historic Site cemetery is lined with more than six hundred stone lanterns that are lit by candlelight each year on August 13 for the Hagi Mantōe festival.

The Worship Hall of Furukuma Shrine in Yamaguchi City, designated in 1949, fuses a two-storey gate with a worship room, its wings linking it to the Main Hall.

Designated in 1917, the Main Hall of Furukuma Shrine in Yamaguchi City carries carved struts of pine, bamboo and plum, held to be the oldest surviving in Japan.

An 1871 stone lighthouse on the cliffs of Mutsurejima off Shimonoseki, built under R. H. Brunton and made an Important Cultural Property in 2020. It still works.