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.
A late-Heian Eleven-Headed Kannon at Hōden-ji in central Itoigawa, carved in the rough-hewn nata-bori style and an Important Cultural Property since 1923.
Three Heian-era Kannon at Chōkoku-ji on Sado, each cut from a single kaya block. Once mistaken for unfinished work, now prized as a complete provincial style.
A late-Heian Kannon of polychromed cypress at Honkō-ji on Sado Island, an Important Cultural Property said to have been venerated by the exiled Emperor Juntoku.
At Nō Hakusan Shrine in Itoigawa, a late-Heian cherry-wood Kannon hides a riddle: lost arms and head scars hint it began as a four-armed Eleven-Headed Kannon.
At Zendo-ji in Joetsu stands a Kamakura statue of the Pure Land master Shandao, mouth open in chant, holes inside once carrying tiny Buddhas from his lips.
On a hill above Naoetsu sits a late-Heian Dainichi Nyorai of kaya wood. Crowned and forming the wisdom-fist mudra, it was among Niigata's earliest protected images.
An early Heian seated Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing and former principal image of Sado Kokubunji in Niigata. Carved from one block, it survived a 1529 fire.
At the heart of Niigata's moss-clad Teikan-en garden stands a Heian Medicine Buddha. Designated in 1939, this statue gave the hall and the garden their name.
Carved in 1308, the Anyo-in Hokyoin-to is Kamakura's oldest dated stone pagoda, an Important Cultural Property whose base records both its patron and its stonemason.
Built around 1646 in Kyoto by Ichijo Ekan, a son of Emperor Go-Yozei, this thatched imperial tea villa was moved to Kamakura with its garden stones in 1959.
The Former Ito Family House, a headman's farmhouse of around 1700 floored in split bamboo, stands in Kawasaki's open-air folk museum, which its rescue founded.
The main hall of Egara Tenjin in Kamakura, rebuilt in 1316 for Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and moved here in 1624, is a rare surviving shrine hall of medieval Kamakura.
The founder's pagoda at Kakuonji in Kamakura, Kanagawa, is a stone hokyointo of 1332, at the close of the Kamakura period, designated with the Daito Pagoda.
The Daito Pagoda at Kakuonji in Kamakura, Kanagawa, is a stone hokyointo of 1332, designated in 1934 with the founder's pagoda of the same year beside it.
The Kanagawa Prefectural Office in Yokohama, completed in 1928 from a competition design, is the "King" of the city's three towers, open to visitors on weekdays.
The former head office of the Yokohama Specie Bank, a stone bank of 1904 in Naka, Yokohama, is a leading work of its era, its restored dome crowning a museum.
The Gekkaden at Sankeien in Yokohama, a Momoyama hall said to be a waiting hall of Fushimi Castle, was moved here from Uji in 1918 and keeps its cypress-bark roof.
The former Tomyoji pagoda on the hill at Sankeien in Yokohama, built in 1457 in Kyoto and moved here in 1914, is the oldest designated pagoda in the Kanto region.
The former main hall of Tomyoji at Sankeien in Yokohama, an early Muromachi hall from Kizugawa in Kyoto, was rebuilt here in 1987 and restored to its medieval form.
Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall: a red-brick public hall of 1917 striped with granite, built by citizens' donations, with the "Jack" clock tower and domes.