Important cultural property

Issued in January 1294 by Hōjō Sadatoki, ninth regent of the Kamakura shogunate, this ink-on-paper edict regulated the conduct of monks at Engaku-ji and other Zen monasteries. Designated an Important Cultural Property, it offers a rare window into the close ties between samurai power and Zen Buddhism in medieval Kamakura.

Discover the Bokuzeisho Volume 23 Fragment, an Important Cultural Property held by Shomyo-ji Temple and preserved at Kanagawa Prefectural Kanazawa Bunko. Explore how this rare divination manuscript reveals the scholarly world of medieval Japanese Buddhist learning.

Discover the Important Cultural Property bokuseki by Sekishitsu Zenkyū—a Zen incense-offering verse (nenkōgo) written in 1363 during the Nanbokuchō period. Owned by the Tokiwayama Bunko and housed at the Tokyo National Museum, this majestic calligraphic work embodies the spiritual depth of medieval Japanese Zen Buddhism. Learn about its history, significance, and how to visit.

The Ishiba house in Hirosaki, Aomori, the 18th-century home of a straw-goods merchant to the domain, faces the castle gate behind a komise and is open for a fee.

Iwakiyama Shrine's worship hall in Aomori began as a Buddhist temple's main hall, built 1603 to 1640. The vermilion five-bay hall still reads as a temple sanctuary.

Iwakiyama Shrine's Romon in Aomori is a vermilion five-bay tower gate built in 1628 as a Buddhist temple's gate, inherited by the shrine after the Meiji reforms.

The Edo Family Residence in Gonohe, Aomori, was home to rural samurai of the Nanbu domain. The large thatched house dates from around 1783; exterior viewing only.

At Engaku-ji in Fukaura, Aomori, this cabinet-shrine of 1506 holds the Medicine Buddha. A one-bay, Zen-style structure, it is reckoned Aomori's oldest building.

The Former Ominato Waterworks in Mutsu, Aomori, built by the navy in 1902 to 1910 and designated in 2009, keep a stone arch dam and brick tank in Suigenchi Park.

The thatched main hall of Kakushuji, mortuary temple of the Tsugaru founder. A large early-1600s Soto Zen hall by the Iwaki River, an Important Cultural Property.

The Former Kasaishi Residence, a thatched 18th-century farmhouse in Towada, Aomori, gives a third of its floor to a stable, the mark of a horse-rearing region.

Maekawa Kunio's first building, completed in 1932 after training under Le Corbusier. One of Japan's earliest modernist works, now an Important Cultural Property.

Built in 1907 by banker Tsushima Gen'emon, this 19-room wooden mansion in Kanagi, Aomori, is novelist Dazai Osamu's birthplace and an Important Cultural Property.

Hirosaki's oldest surviving samurai house, named in a 1756 register. A national Important Cultural Property built in hiba, its roof frame left open. Free entry.

Shiriyasaki Lighthouse at the north-east tip of Shimokita, built in 1876 under Richard Henry Brunton, was Tohoku's first Western lighthouse, a 32.8 m brick tower.

A 1904 timber bank in Hirosaki, Aomori, an Important Cultural Property since 1972, the masterpiece of local carpenter Horie Sakichi, with a central lookout.

The Tsugaru Family Mausolea, five structures designated as Important Cultural Properties of Japan, stand within the grounds of Choshoji Temple in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. Built between 1631 and 1753, these mausolea honor successive lords and ladies of the Hirosaki Domain. Their austere unpainted wood exteriors conceal brilliantly painted ceilings featuring dragons and celestial beings. Located at the end of Zenringai — a unique avenue of 33 Soto Zen temples — they offer a profound encounter with the feudal history and sacred architecture of northern Japan.

The Toshogu Shrine Main Hall in Hirosaki, built in 1628, is an Important Cultural Property of plain unpainted wood with Momoyama-period carving and a karahafu porch.

The Mausoleum of Nanbu Toshiyasu in Nanbu, Aomori, built about 1631, is a tiny Important Cultural Property hall of black lacquer, bright paint and gilt metalwork.

The Hirosaki Gakuin Foreign Missionary House, built in 1906 for Methodist women missionaries, is an Important Cultural Property with an octagonal spire.