Important cultural property

Completed in 1933 and extended by a second architect until 1965, this Nihombashi store was Japan's first department store designated an Important Cultural Property.

Made in 1878 at a government works and moved to Fukagawa in 1929, this 15.2-metre bridge pairs a cast iron arch with wrought iron ties, unique among survivors.

Built in 1890 in Ueno Park, Tokyo, and designated an Important Cultural Property in 1988, this wooden hall still houses Japan's oldest concert pipe organ.

Completed in 1937 in Ueno Park, Tokyo, and designated an Important Cultural Property in 2001, this tile-roofed concrete building is the Tokyo National Museum Honkan.

A 1911 two-span stone arch bridge in Tokyo, the zero point of Japan's national roads, an Important Cultural Property since 1999, with bronze kirin and lions.

The Hyokeikan in Ueno, Tokyo, a museum of 1908 within the Tokyo National Museum, marks a royal wedding and is a Neo-Baroque stone and brick hall by Katayama Tokuma.

The Mitsui Main Building in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, rebuilt in 1929 to designs by Trowbridge and Livingston of New York, lines its streets with a giant Corinthian order.

A 1927 steel and concrete department store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, an Important Cultural Property since 2016, with a classical facade and an Art Deco atrium.

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.

The iron gate of Myohoji in Suginami, Tokyo, cast in 1878 by the Ministry of Public Works, blends Japanese and Western design with a phoenix and acanthus doors.

The Imbrie House at Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo, a missionary home of about 1889 where William Imbrie lived from 1897 to 1922, mixes post-and-beam and balloon framing.

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.

Letters, diaries and effects of Meiji statesman Okubo Toshimichi, 3,053 items at the National Museum of Japanese History, an Important Cultural Property since 2004.