Important cultural property

A late Edo farmhouse in Ome, Tokyo, an Important Cultural Property since 1978. Moved from the Nariki hills, it keeps a cedar-bark and thatch roof. Free entry.

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.

Meiji Seimeikan in Marunouchi, completed 1934, was the first Showa-era building listed as an Important Cultural Property. Its Corinthian colonnade faces the moat.

Built at Glasgow in 1874, the Meiji Maru is the only iron ship left in Japan and the first vessel listed as an Important Cultural Property. Entry is free.

Raised in 1717 for the seventh shogun Tokugawa Ietsugu, this vermilion gate is all that survives of the last Tokugawa mausoleum, the rest lost in wartime raids.

Built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and made an Important Cultural Property in 2021, Yoyogi National Stadium hangs its roof from cables slung between two 40m masts.

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.

Held at Eisei Bunko in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, the Important Cultural Property Kasugano-zu Tsuba — signed by Kaneie of Fushimi, founder of pictorial-style sword guards — is one of the masterworks of Momoyama-period Japanese metalwork. On a thin iron disk, the celebrated Plain of Kasuga in Nara unfolds in deep relief with whisper-soft gold and silver inlay. This guide introduces the work, its enigmatic maker, and the Hosokawa-family museum that preserves it, with practical visitor information.

Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1980, this 15th-century domaru armor at the Tokyo National Museum is a rare survival in which the cuirass, helmet, and large shoulder guards remain together as one original ensemble. Its distinctive katatsumadori lacing combined with the omodaka (water plantain) motif represents the artistic peak of Muromachi-period armor making.

Discover the Matsuya Katatsuki, an Important Cultural Property of Japan — a Chinese-made shouldered tea caddy that passed through the hands of shoguns and tea masters for over 500 years. Now housed at the Nezu Museum in Tokyo's Aoyama district.

Discover Metempsychosis (Seisei Ruten), Yokoyama Taikan's monumental 40-meter ink scroll painting depicting the eternal cycle of water. Designated as an Important Cultural Property, this masterwork is housed at MOMAT in Tokyo's Kitanomaru Park.

Discover the Shōban Zanketsu (Shokkō-kin), a pair of Asuka-period banner fragments held at the Tokyo National Museum's Gallery of Hōryū-ji Treasures. Designated an Important Cultural Property, these warp-faced compound weave brocades, woven in vibrant red with pearl roundels of lions, phoenixes, celestial horses and stags, are among the oldest surviving silk textiles in the world. A 1,300-year-old testament to Silk Road exchange between Tang-dynasty Shu (Sichuan) and ancient Japan.

Discover Jinkenki, an Important Cultural Property consisting of 12 handwritten diary volumes by a Kōfuku-ji temple abbot, chronicling 15 years of political upheaval and daily life in Sengoku-era Yamato Province. Housed at the National Archives of Japan in Tokyo.

Discover the Seisetsu Shōchō Bokuseki 'Yo Kantaiji Zōsu Hōgo' at Eisei Bunko in Tokyo. This Important Cultural Property is a Dharma instruction brushed by the Yuan-Chinese Zen master Seisetsu Shōchō (1274–1339), who came to Japan in 1326 and shaped early Japanese Zen. Explore its history, artistic highlights, and visitor information.