Meiji

An earth-walled storehouse of the Meiji period in Miyazu, Kyoto, just 17 square metres. Its rafters are set in a fan, as at three other stores on the plot.

A Meiji townhouse on Shinmachi-dori in Kyoto, 180 square metres. Its ground-floor front divides in three: a doorway, a display board and a lattice bay.

A shop of 1883 on Oike-dori in Kyoto, 80 square metres. Its plan wraps in an L around a storehouse that is itself registered quite separately from it.

A Buddhist painting in sixteen scrolls owned by Seiryoji in Kyoto. The record gives its country as Song and its period as Northern Song, not as Japan.

A Southern Song painting on one scroll at Tofukuji, Kyoto, showing the full figure. It came down in a single box with a second scroll of the same title.

A Southern Song tea bowl held at Shokokuji in Kyoto Prefecture. On the inside, the pattern is formed exactly where the upper glaze was simply left off.

A tea bowl held at Ryukoin in Kyoto Prefecture. Yet another bowl of the very same name is recorded there under a different system of listing altogether.

Discover the Persian Manuscript in Japan, a remarkable 13th-century document brought from Song-dynasty Quanzhou by the monk Keisei. This Important Cultural Property contains Persian poetry and reveals the vibrant maritime Silk Road connections between medieval Japan, China, and Persia.

An Important Cultural Property of Japan held privately in Kyoto Prefecture. This hanging scroll is a Zen ink-trace (bokuseki) brushed in 1268 by the Southern Song Chan master Wu'er Kexuan (also known as Shiqiao Kexuan), giving a verse-poem to his disciple Ming, who served as the temple's head of guests. As a precisely dated late-Southern-Song original, it is a primary document of Sino-Japanese Zen exchange and an exemplar of the calligraphy that came to be revered as the highest form of hanging scroll in the Japanese tea ceremony.

Discover the Hongwanji Dendoin, an Important Cultural Property in Kyoto designed by legendary architect Ito Chuta in 1912. This red-brick treasure near Nishi Hongwanji blends Islamic domes, British brickwork, and Japanese design into one extraordinary building.

Standing on the windswept northernmost cliff of the Tango Peninsula in Kyoto Prefecture, Kyōgamisaki Lighthouse is a working Meiji-era stone tower first lit on December 25, 1898. It is one of only five "first-order" lighthouses in Japan, and its original French-made Fresnel lens and pioneering mercury-bath rotation mechanism are still in operation today. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 2022, it stands amid the columnar basalt cliffs of the San'in Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark and offers visitors one of the most dramatic coastal landscapes in western Japan.

The Holy Annunciation Cathedral of Kyoto Orthodox Church, located in Nakagyo Ward, Kyoto, is Japan's oldest surviving full-scale wooden Orthodox cathedral, completed in 1903. Designed by Shigemitsu Matsumuro based on Russian Holy Synod approved plans, this Russian-Byzantine style building houses a magnificent iconostasis with 30 sacred icons crafted in Moscow during the late Russian Imperial period. Designated as a national Important Cultural Property in 2022.

Built in 1904 near the Kyoto Imperial Palace, this brick Renaissance hall still holds government offices, reputedly Japan's oldest such building in active use.

Near Kyoto's Nanzen-ji, this Meiji villa pairs a famed Ueji garden, fed by the Lake Biwa Canal, with a sukiya house named an Important Cultural Property in 2024.

Four brick structures of 1895 at the Kyoto National Museum, designed by Katayama Tokuma and listed in 1969. The main hall is closed, but the gate and walls remain.

Completed in 1906 and designed by renowned architects Tatsuno Kingo and Nagano Uheiji, the Former Bank of Japan Kyoto Branch is a stunning example of Meiji-era Western-style architecture. Designated a national Important Cultural Property, this iconic red-brick building now serves as the Museum of Kyoto Annex, open free to the public. Visitors can admire the grand double-height banking hall, historic vault room café, and the signature 'Tatsuno style' design that predates Tokyo Station.

The Former Butokuden in Kyoto's Okazaki district is Japan's oldest surviving martial arts hall, built in 1899 by the Dai Nippon Butokukai. Designed by architect Matsumuro Shigemitsu, this masterpiece of modern Japanese-style architecture was designated a nationally Important Cultural Property in 1996. Still actively used as part of the Kyoto Budo Center, it hosts the annual All Japan Kendo Demonstration Tournament each May.

A French priest's 1896 design, built by Miyazu carpenters: a wooden church with a Romanesque vault over a tatami floor. An Important Cultural Property since 2024.

A stone myojin torii marking the approach to Amino Shrine, raised in 1881 and 5.5 metres tall. Toppled in the 1927 quake, it was rebuilt to its original form in 1929.

An 1892 thatched gate at Anrakuji in Kyoto's Shishigatani, with octagonal posts and pole rafters fanned beneath a hipped roof. The temple opens in spring and autumn.