Important cultural property

Discover the Monzai Family Residence, an Important Cultural Property from the mid-Edo period in Minobu, Yamanashi. This thatched-roof farmhouse reveals the life of gold mine administrators in the Fuji River valley.

Discover the Anyoji Thirteen-Story Stone Pagoda, a nationally designated Important Cultural Property from the late Kamakura period, standing within the grounds of Tohozan Anyoji Temple in Ritto City, Shiga Prefecture. This 334 cm granite pagoda features exquisite relief carvings of four Buddhas and elegant eave curvature.

The Main Hall of Hando Shrine, perched atop Mt. Hando (664 m) in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property rebuilt in 1650. Adorned with vermilion lacquer and gold leaf in the Momoyama architectural style, it crowns a sacred mountain renowned as a Shugendo training ground and legendary home of the Koga ninja.

The Main Hall of Ikuwa Shrine in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, is an Important Cultural Property dating from the early Muromachi period (c. 1333–1392). Built in the ichikensha nagare-zukuri style with a hinoki cypress bark roof, it enshrines Fujiwara no Tadashige, a legendary lord who slew a great serpent and reclaimed marshland for the local community. The shrine grounds also house the Kamakura-period Kasuga Shrine subsidiary hall, another Important Cultural Property.

The subsidiary Kasuga Shrine Main Hall within Ikuwa Shrine in Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, is an Important Cultural Property dating to the late Kamakura period. Built in the nagare-zukuri style with cypress bark roofing, this compact shrine hall preserves older architectural techniques than the adjacent main Ikuwa Shrine hall, making it a rare and valuable example of medieval Japanese sacred architecture.

The honden of Isasa Shrine, located along the old Nakasendo highway in Kusatsu City, Shiga Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1468 during the Muromachi period. This elegant single-bay flowing-gable structure with a hinoki bark roof features exquisite openwork carvings and is just an eight-minute walk from JR Kusatsu Station.

A mid-Muromachi one-bay shrine hall with a flowing roof in the Inari Shrine precinct at Yasu, Shiga. Designated in 1917, it once served the vanished Fukurin-ji.

Enkoji Kujunoto in Yasu, Shiga, is a granite nine-storey pagoda of about 1256, now 3.94 m without its finial. Its lowest tier bears the four Diamond Realm Buddhas.

Enkoji Hondo in Yasu, Shiga, built in 1257, is dated by ink writing on its ridgepole. Its gabled roof, rare on a Buddhist hall, was restored in a 1956 repair.

Built inside the Kyoto palace in 1619 for Tokugawa Masako and granted to Enman-in in 1647, this 19.7-metre shingle-roofed shoin hall in Otsu was designated in 1902.

A bronze spire on a hilltop behind Enryaku-ji's West Pagoda hall, traced to Saichō in 820 and recast in bronze around 1895. Inside are copied sutras, not relics.

Built in 1634 as a Tokugawa shrine hall, Enryaku-ji's Great Lecture Hall was moved up Mount Hiei in 1963. An Important Cultural Property of early Edo carpentry.

Built in 1347 as Onjō-ji's main hall beside Lake Biwa, it was carried up Mount Hiei by Hideyoshi in 1595 and is now Enryaku-ji's oldest surviving building.

Oisugi Shrine Main Hall in Kusatsu, Shiga, is a 1452 nagare-zukuri hall with painted carvings, designated in 1906, and host to the UNESCO Sanyare Odori.

Rebuilt in 1581 on Oda Nobunaga's order, the Main Hall of Oiso Shrine in Shiga is a three-bay nagare-zukuri hall roofed in cypress bark, set in the old Oiso Forest.

The 1427 Main Hall of Shinohara Shrine in Yasu, Shiga, stands beside a National Treasure. This Important Cultural Property is nicknamed the Rice-Cake Shrine.

An Important Cultural Property in Otsu, this 1670 shoin of Otsu Betsuin wraps in a U shape around a courtyard. A rare niche, hearth and shelf set its plan apart.

Ōtsu Betsuin Main Hall, Shiga, rebuilt in 1649, anchors a Higashi Hongan-ji branch founded in 1600 by the priest Kyonyo. An early-Edo Important Cultural Property.

Ono Shrine's tower gate in Ritto, Shiga is the oldest surviving romon at any shrine or temple in the prefecture, an early-Kamakura building in late Heian style.

Discover the Main Hall of Ozu Shrine in Moriyama, Shiga Prefecture—a nationally designated Important Cultural Property dating from the late Muromachi period. Explore its elegant cypress-bark roof, one of Japan's three great deity statues, and the vibrant Naginata Festival held every May 5.