Important cultural property

Discover the Important Cultural Property seven-story stone pagoda at Sekininji Temple in Higashiomi, Shiga. Built in 1318, this Kamakura-period monument is tied to the legendary Man'yōshū poet Yamabe no Akahito. Explore its history, significance, and visitor tips.

Discover the Sōkenji Three-Story Pagoda, an Important Cultural Property of Japan built in 1454 and relocated by Oda Nobunaga to Azuchi Castle. Explore its Muromachi-period architecture, rich history, and stunning hilltop setting overlooking Lake Biwa.

Discover the Daiichi Daidogawa Bridge, a designated Important Cultural Property in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture. Built in 1954, this pioneering prestressed concrete railway bridge still carries trains on the Shigaraki Kohgen Railway and stands as a milestone in Japanese civil engineering history.

The Main Hall of Daigyoji Shrine, located within the grounds of Enkoji Temple in Kunobe, Yasu City, Shiga Prefecture, is a mid-Muromachi period (c. 1466) shrine built in the ikkensha nagare-zukuri style with a hinoki cypress bark roof. Designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan in 1943, this exquisite structure features refined transom carvings and ornamental panels. Together with Enkoji Temple's own Important Cultural Properties, the site offers a rare glimpse into the medieval tradition of shinbutsu-shūgō, the harmonious coexistence of Shinto and Buddhist worship.

Discover the Important Cultural Properties of Ganzanken and Rantei at Daitsuji Temple in Nagahama, Shiga. These Edo-period shoin halls feature sliding door paintings by Kano Sanraku, Kano Sansetsu, and Maruyama Okyo, with nationally designated scenic gardens incorporating Mt. Ibuki as borrowed scenery.

The Grand Hall (Hiroma) of Daitsuji Temple in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, is an Important Cultural Property of Japan believed to have originated as the formal audience chamber of Fushimi Castle. Its shoin-zukuri architecture and vivid Momoyama-era screen paintings by Kano school artists offer visitors an extraordinary window into Japan's feudal past. Discover the intertwined history of this Higashi Honganji branch temple and the powerful Ii clan of Hikone.

The Amida hall of Daitsuji in Nagahama, Shiga, dated 1657 by the register yet held by temple tradition to be a relocated hall from Hideyoshi's Fushimi Castle.

The Ōki Shrine main hall inside Daihō Shrine in Rittō was built in 1283 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 1906, the oldest hall of its type.

The Bell Tower at Chomeiji Temple in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1608. Featuring an elegant two-story hakama-goshi design with cypress bark roofing, it houses a medieval bronze bell and offers breathtaking panoramic views of Lake Biwa from its elevated hillside position within the 31st temple of the Saigoku Kannon Pilgrimage.

Chiyo Shrine in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, is home to a main hall (honden) designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan, built in 1638 during the early Edo period. As reportedly the only shrine in Japan enshrining Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto—the goddess of performing arts—as its principal deity, it attracts actors, musicians, and artists from across the country. The three-bay nagare-zukuri hall features exquisite polychrome carvings and lacquerwork, representing the finest of early Edo shrine architecture.

Tucked into the western foothills of the Suzuka Mountains in Higashiomi City, Shiga, the Main Hall of Hyakusai-ji Temple is an early Edo-period Buddhist hall completed in 1650 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004. Founded according to tradition by Prince Shōtoku in 606, this Tendai temple was rebuilt by the monk Ryōzan after Oda Nobunaga's destruction of the complex. The hall preserves the tripartite spatial order of medieval Buddhist halls while embracing early-modern aesthetics, and stands as one of the famed Three Mountain Temples east of Lake Biwa, celebrated for autumn foliage, the Thousand-Year Bodhi Tree, stone-paved approach, and the Garden of Distant Views.

Tucked into a quiet cedar grove in Yasu City, Shiga, the Hiyoshi Shrine Honden is a small but exquisitely preserved late-Kamakura main hall built in the single-bay nagare-zukuri style with hinoki-bark roof, designated an Important Cultural Property in 1944.

Two 1595 halls near the summit above Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu. The worship hall is cantilevered over a cliff and joined at the rear to the sanctuary behind it.

Two 1598 halls at Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu. The last of the shrine's three Hiyoshi-zukuri sanctuaries, it was set down over bedrock left exposed beneath the floor.

Two summit halls above Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu, dated 1599. Nearly a twin of neighbouring Ushio Shrine, it differs in frontage, entrance and how the gable is built.

Two 1595 halls at Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu. The sanctuary of the consort deity carries lavish metal fittings; its worship hall is the only latticed one here.

Two Momoyama halls at Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu. The sanctuary repeats a neighbouring design with its metalwork stripped back; the worship hall has no walls at all.

A 1586 tower gate at Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu, listed in 1917. Four carved monkeys prop the eaves, and three more play in pine branches on the upper storey.

A Momoyama gate at Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu, dated only to a twenty-year span. Step through and the sanctuary is not ahead of you but turned aside from the path.

Three stone beam bridges over the Omiya River at Hiyoshi Taisha in Otsu, listed together in 1917. Each translates the joinery of a timber bridge into cut stone.