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.
An early Edo farmhouse in Kumatori, south Osaka, with one of the largest earthen-floored work spaces in the Kinki region. Designated in 1964, it is free to enter.
Nagano Jinja Honden in Kawachi-Nagano, Osaka, listed in 1941, packs a dormer gable and a curved bargeboard onto a one-bay cypress bark roof. Free to enter.
In the hills of Izumisano, Osaka, the small Kasuga-style hall of Miyuki Shrine at Hibashiri Shrine bears an ink inscription of 1508 and late Muromachi carving.
Maniin, a sub-temple of Kongo-ji in Kawachi-Nagano, Osaka, housed Emperor Go-Murakami from 1354. Its shoin was listed in 1965, its gate and walls in 2019.
Minase Shrine Guest Hall in Shimamoto, Osaka, is the oldest building on its grounds: a Momoyama shoin with a 30-mat room, designated in 1926, opened on special days.
Minase Shrine Tea House in Shimamoto, Osaka, an early Edo tea room called Toshinseki, fills each ceiling coffer with a lamp-wick plant. Open by reservation.
Mengyo Kaikan in Osaka's Senba district, the cotton trade's clubhouse of 1931, hides rooms in many historical styles behind a plain front; tours run monthly.
The main hall of Yasaka Shrine in Ikeda, Osaka, built in 1610, is a one-bay nagare-style hall whose decorated struts and beam ends show the Momoyama style.
Ryusenji Niomon in Tondabayashi, Osaka, is dated to 1275 by ink inscriptions inside its guardian figures. It is the prefecture's only medieval eight-legged gate.
The Tower of the Sun in Suita, Osaka, Okamoto Taro's theme pavilion for Expo '70, became an Important Cultural Property in 2025; its interior can be visited.
Kanshin-ji preserves a pair of gilt-bronze lotus vases, one inscribed 1330 (Gentoku 2). Late Kamakura kebyō for Shingon altar rites, Important Cultural Property.
Discover Locomotive No. 233 in Kyoto: Japan's oldest surviving domestically mass-produced steam locomotive, built in 1903–1904 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 2016. A milestone of Meiji-era industrial heritage at Kyoto Railway Museum.
The Two-Poem Kaishi by Fujiwara no Hidetō preserves two summer waka inscribed in 1201 by a young warrior-courtier just before his appointment to Retired Emperor Go-Toba's Bureau of Poetry. Dated precisely to the last day of the sixth month of Kennin 1, the scroll is a reference work for early Kamakura calligraphy and an Important Cultural Property since 1954.
An Edo-period katana at Sumiyoshi Taisha, Osaka, an Important Cultural Property since 1960, signed by Hankei, a Tokugawa gunsmith who became a swordsmith.
Discover the Shino Tea Bowl, Named "Hirosawa," an Important Cultural Property of Japan housed at the Yuki Museum of Art in Osaka. A Momoyama-period masterpiece from the Mino kilns, this half-cylindrical chawan features creamy white feldspar glaze, soft fire-color flush, and faintly emerging iron-pigment designs. Ranked among the finest Shino tea bowls alongside the National Treasure "Unohana-gaki" and "Hagoromo," it embodies the very spirit of wabi tea aesthetics.
Discover the Important Cultural Property held at Osaka Castle Museum: Toyotomi Hideyoshi's autograph death poem ('Like dew I fall, like dew I vanish — all the affairs of Naniwa are but a dream within a dream'), ten blood-oath pledges in which Maeda Toshiie and other senior retainers swore loyalty to the young heir Hideyori on sacred Kumano talismans, and the vermilion-sealed orders that launched the second invasion of Korea in 1597. Designated in 2020, these thirteen documents offer an intimate window into the final years of the Toyotomi regime — with full historical background and visitor information for the Osaka Castle donjon.
Discover the Lidded Bowl-Shaped Pottery with Stand, a designated cultural property from the Uriawari archaeological site in Osaka. Learn about its Yayoi-period origins, significance, and how to visit the Osaka Museum of History.
The old main hall of Ono Oimatsu Tenmansha in Hita, Oita, built in 1488, is a sheltered three-bay nagare-style hall, a rare Muromachi survivor in Kyushu.
Aizendo, the main hall of Ganjoin in Taketa, Oita, was built in 1635; its brackets bear carved demons and its walls painted celestials, shown each spring and autumn.
The Former Yahata Family Residence in Hita, Oita, a farmhouse of the late Edo period (1751 to 1829), keeps the original separate-wing form found in Kyushu.