Important cultural property
重 要 文 化 財 一 覧Explore Japan’s Important Cultural Properties in one searchable list. Filter by prefecture, period, and category, read concise stories, and plan visits with maps and travel tips.
Completed in 1660 and designated in 1943, Marugame's keep is the smallest of Japan's twelve original towers, set on its tallest stonework. Open 9:00-16:30, 400 yen.
A Muromachi hall on Shodoshima, begun in 1522 and finished in 1533, designated an Important Cultural Property in 1907. Its 23 inscribed tiles are shown inside.
The mid-Muromachi gate of Motoyamaji, temple 70 on the Shikoku pilgrimage in Mitoyo. Protected nationally since 1904, it opens onto a National Treasure main hall.
Granite lighthouse of 1895 at the tip of Ogijima in the Bisan Strait, walls left unpainted, made an Important Cultural Property in 2026 with two brick buildings.
Main hall of Asakura Shrine in Kochi, rebuilt in 1657 by Yamauchi Tadayoshi: a gabled hall with a karahafu porch, rich polychrome, lacquer and gilt fittings.
Kochi is the only Japanese castle where the whole honmaru survives and the original keep and lord's palace stand together, one of just twelve original keeps.
Main hall of Tosa Kokubunji, Temple 29 of the Shikoku pilgrimage in Nankoku, Kochi, rebuilt in 1558 by Chosokabe Motochika, its shingled roof recalling early halls.
Hall of around the late 15th century at Kinrinji in Umaji, Kochi, with rare board eaves and fine cypress and cedar work, one of few such early halls in Shikoku.
Built around 1797 in Otoyo Town, Kochi, this thatched shoin was the last lodging inside Tosa on the daimyo's overland journey to Edo. Designated in 1974.
Built in 1816 to receive the lords of Tosa, this shoin hall at Chikurinji in Kochi turns its rear rooms toward a pond garden designated a Place of Scenic Beauty.
Chikurinji's main hall at Godaisan in Kochi, designated in 1904, wears Zen-style fan rafters and packed bracketing, with heavenly musicians painted on the ceiling.
Tosa Jinja Koro in Kochi, built by Yamauchi Tadayoshi in 1649, is still filed as temple architecture, a trace of the era when shrine and temple stood as one.
Tosa Jinja Heiden and Haiden in Kochi forms a cross read as a dragonfly entering the sanctuary. Built about 1571 in bare timber, its floors drop in three stages.
Tosa Jinja Romon in Kochi, rebuilt by Yamauchi Tadayoshi in 1631, is an almost undecorated wayo gate whose second storey was given a ceiling and treated as a room.
Taku Seibyo in Taku, Saga: a Confucian temple completed in 1708 as the heart of a local academy, richly carved in Chinese style. Open after spring and autumn rites.
Tashima Shrine Main Hall in Imari, Saga: an early Muromachi three-bay nagare sanctuary, one of few medieval shrine buildings in Kyushu, seen through its shelter.
Former Tashiro Family Western-Style House in Arita, Saga: an 1876 hybrid house a porcelain trader built for foreign buyers, with a colonnaded veranda.
A vermilion two-storied gate of the Momoyama period beside Saga Castle's moat. Why it carries two designation dates, and the 1603 torii and 1606 bridge before it.
A thatched farmhouse of 1789 in the Chikushi mountains, dated by ink on a purlin joint. Saga's oldest securely dated dwelling, and the access you must check first.
Kitain in Kawagoe, Saitama: rebuilt after the 1638 fire with halls said to come from Edo Castle, it has six Important Cultural Property buildings, open to visit.