Important cultural property

The Main Hall of Gokokuji Temple in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward is the central building of a prayer temple commissioned in 1697 by the fifth Tokugawa shogun Tsunayoshi at the request of his mother Keishoin. With its seven-bay-square plan, sweeping irimoya roof, and refined fusion of Japanese wayo and Chinese-influenced karayo styles, this Genroku-era masterpiece is the only original main hall of a major head temple to have survived in central Tokyo from the Edo period. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1931, it offers visitors a rare encounter with the architectural ambition of late seventeenth-century Edo.

Built in 1910 as the Imperial Guards command office, this Kitanomaru Park landmark is a rare Meiji brick survivor and a scene of the 1945 surrender-night coup.

The Kobayashi Family Residence, a thatched farmhouse at 750 meters on a ridge in Hinohara, west Tokyo, was built in the early 1700s and is reached by monorail.

Kongō-ji Niō-mon Gate in Hino City, Tokyo, is the main gate of Takahata Fudōson, one of the Three Great Fudō of the Kantō region. Built in the late Muromachi period as a three-bay, single-entrance two-story gate (sangen ikko rōmon), it was returned to its original two-story irimoya form during the 1959–1960 dismantling and restoration. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1946, the gate houses a fierce pair of Muromachi-period Niō guardian statues. Just 35 minutes from Shinjuku by Keiō Line and a 5-minute walk from the station, it offers a rare encounter with medieval temple architecture amid the seasonal beauty of hydrangeas and autumn maples.

Kongoji Fudodo in Hino City, Tokyo is an early Muromachi-period temple hall rebuilt in 1342 and widely regarded as the oldest existing cultural-property building within Tokyo Metropolis. Designated a Nationally Important Cultural Property, the hall — five bays square with a hip-and-gable roof, a one-bay front canopy, and copper sheeting in thatched-roof profile — stands at the heart of Takahata Fudoson, one of the Kantō region's three great Fudō temples and the ancestral temple of Shinsengumi vice-commander Hijikata Toshizō.

Discover the Former Jūrin-in Treasury, a Kamakura-period azekura storehouse designated as an Important Cultural Property, quietly nestled within the grounds of Tokyo National Museum in Ueno Park.

The Former Western-style Rest House within Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden is an Important Cultural Property built in 1896 as a resting place for the Imperial family during visits to the garden's greenhouses. Designed by the Imperial Household Ministry's Construction Bureau in the American Stick Style, this elegant single-story wooden building is the sole surviving imperial garden facility from the Meiji and Taisho periods. Reopened to the public in December 2024 after renovation.

Nitenmon Gate at Sensoji Temple in Taito, Tokyo, is one of the few surviving examples of early Edo-period wooden architecture in central Tokyo. Built around 1649 and designated as a National Important Cultural Property, this striking vermilion gate originally served as the entrance to a Toshogu Shrine within the Sensoji precinct. Transformed through the Meiji-era separation of Shinto and Buddhism, it now houses guardian statues of Jikokuten and Zochoten. Fully restored in 2010, the gate offers visitors a rare glimpse into 17th-century Japanese craftsmanship.

Discover Nihonbashi, Tokyo's historic stone bridge and designated Important Cultural Property. Learn about its Edo-period origins, Renaissance-style architecture, mythical kirin statues, and the exciting expressway removal project restoring blue skies by 2040.

Standing to the left of the Tokyo National Museum's Main Building, the Hyokeikan is a Neo-Baroque Important Cultural Property completed in 1908. Designed under Katayama Tokuma and funded entirely by public donations to celebrate Emperor Taisho's wedding, it was Japan's first full-scale art museum. Verdigris domes, a-un lion statues, and a sixteen-pointed star mosaic floor of French marble showcase the finest Meiji-era Western architecture.

Standing in stately proportion at the heart of Nihonbashi-Muromachi, the Mitsui Main Building is one of Tokyo's most magnificent surviving works of early Showa-era architecture. Completed in 1929 as the headquarters of the prewar Mitsui zaibatsu, it was designed by the New York firm Trowbridge & Livingston in a confident American Beaux-Arts neoclassical style. Towering Corinthian columns line three street facades, and a vast marble banking hall on the first floor embodies the design ideals of "Grandeur, Dignity, and Simplicity" set out by managing director Dan Takuma. In 1998 it became the first large multi-tenant office building in Japan to receive Important Cultural Property status. Today the seventh floor houses the Mitsui Memorial Museum, displaying six National Treasures and dozens of further masterpieces from three centuries of the Mitsui family collection.

Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi Main Store, tracing its origins to the Echigoya kimono shop founded in 1673, was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 2016. Designed by the Yokogawa Engineering Office, the building features a majestic Western classical exterior, a breathtaking five-story marble central hall, and Art Deco interiors that showcase pioneering design from each era of expansion. Highlights include the towering Magokoro wooden sculpture, historic Wurlitzer pipe organ performances, and a tranquil rooftop garden. Located just one minute from Mitsukoshimae Station on the Tokyo Metro.

Cast in 1878 by the Ministry of Industry's Akabane Works, the Iron Gate of Myōhō-ji Temple in Suginami, Tokyo is a rare nationally Important Cultural Property that fuses Japanese tradition with Western design—a poetic monument to Japan's industrial awakening.

Standing quietly on the Meiji Gakuin campus in Tokyo's Shirokanedai, Imbrie Hall is the oldest surviving missionary residence in the city. Completed around 1889, this two-story wooden house reflects American Gothic Revival style and was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1998. Alongside the Memorial Hall and Chapel, it forms a rare Meiji-era architectural ensemble, seven minutes on foot from Shirokanedai Station. The exterior can be viewed freely.

Discover the Important Cultural Property 'Poetry Paper by Fujiwara no Kintsune' at the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya. This Kamakura-period calligraphic masterpiece features a waka poem on the theme 'Flowers Have the Color of Joy,' handwritten by one of medieval Japan's most powerful courtiers and a celebrated poet of the Hyakunin Isshu. Learn about kaishi art, Kintsune's legacy, and visitor information.

Held at The Railway Museum in Saitama, the Tetsudō Komonjo (Railway Archives) is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property comprising 91 volumes of administrative records spanning 1870 to 1893. These foundational documents reveal how Japan built its first railways — surveys, land deals, British equipment, regulations, even uniforms. Survivors of the 1923 earthquake and WWII evacuation, they offer a rare window into Meiji modernization.

An Important Cultural Property film recording Onoe Matsunosuke—Japan's first movie star—performing the iconic "Farewell at Sakurai" before the future Emperor Shōwa at Japan's first motion picture exhibition in 1921. Only the second film ever designated nationally; a digitally restored version is freely available online, with related exhibits at the National Film Archive of Japan in Kyobashi, Tokyo.

Filmed in November 1899 behind Tokyo's Kabuki-za theatre, Momijigari is the oldest surviving film made by a Japanese cinematographer and the only moving record of two of the Meiji era's greatest kabuki actors, Ichikawa Danjūrō IX and Onoe Kikugorō V. In 2009 it became the first film of any kind to be designated a Japanese Important Cultural Property. This guide explains how the film came to be made, why it matters, and how international visitors can engage with it today through the National Film Archive of Japan in Kyobashi, Tokyo.

Discover the Important Cultural Property collection of over 3,000 documents related to Okubo Toshimichi, one of the Three Great Nobles of the Meiji Restoration, housed at the National Museum of Japanese History in Sakura, Chiba.

Discover the Important Cultural Property tsuba (sword guard) known as the 'Hand Guard with the Motif of a Fierce Tiger in the Rain' (signed Toshinaga, with kao), housed at the Tokyo National Museum. Created by Nara Toshinaga, the foremost master of the Nara school of mid-Edo period sword-fitting artisans, this 7.4 cm iron tsuba captures a tiger crouched in a storm — a dramatic miniature scene executed in high-relief carving, gold and silver inlay, openwork, and hairline engraving. Learn about the work's artistry and visit one of Tokyo's most extraordinary museum districts in Ueno.