Important Cultural Property of Nagano

A 1515 wood-shingled pagoda within a Shinto shrine in Saku, Nagano. This Important Cultural Property survived the Meiji purge of Buddhism as a 'storehouse'.

Of three halls at Shinkai Sansha Shrine, only the small, plain East Hall is designated, a late Muromachi nagare-zukuri valued for the carving that fixes its age.

Shinmei Shrine in Omi, Nagano, keeps five Edo-period buildings from 1684 to 1840, including a large shinmei-style sanctuary and an early rural kabuki stage.

The Sunohara Family Residence in Tomi, Nagano, a thatched farmhouse of around 1688 to 1704, keeps a huge earthen floor and archaic frame; it is open free.

Suwa Shrine in Kinno, Yasuoka, shelters two plain nagare-zukuri sanctuaries of 1573, side by side and well preserved. What makes them notable and how to visit them.

Suwa Shrine in Okkoto, Fujimi, keeps the 1617 worship and offering halls of Suwa Taisha's Upper Shrine, moved here in 1849 and restored after a 1948 fire.

Suwa Taisha Kamisha Honmiya has no main hall: worship faces Mount Moriya. Its 16 listed buildings range from the 1608 gate to Tatekawa carvings. Hours and access.

Suwa Taisha Shimosha's Harumiya and Akimiya share one plan but rival carvers. A guide to its seven listed buildings, the 1835 kagura hall, hours and walking access.

Finished in 1759 and an Important Cultural Property since 1965, Zenkoji Kyozo centres on a six-metre revolving case holding 6,771 volumes of the Buddhist canon.

Dating from 1750 and protected as an Important Cultural Property since 1965, Zenkoji Sanmon has been climbable again since 2008. Monju waits on the upper floor.

Zenzanji Temple Three-Storied Pagoda in Ueda, Nagano, is a Muromachi pagoda whose upper stories lack verandas. An Important Cultural Property since 1922.

Built around the mid-1600s in Azumino, Nagano, this farmhouse belongs to the honmune-zukuri type but opens on its eaves side, showing the style before it settled.

Inside Daihoji's Kannon Hall in Aoki Village, Nagano, a miniature shrine roofed to imitate tiles carries what the temple calls Japan's oldest surviving shachihoko.

A boarded-roof honmune farmhouse on a terrace above the Tenryu River in Takamori, Nagano. A ridge tablet fixes its date to 1799; it was listed in 1973.

This tiny single-bay nagare-zukuri shrine hall in Iiyama, Nagano, an Important Cultural Property since 1952, keeps Muromachi details under a thick shingle roof.

Made as a gilded cabinet for the vanished temple of Nyakutakuji, this one-bay hall in Hata, Matsumoto, was listed in 1953 and now sits inside a protective shelter.

A late Muromachi Buddhist hall in Chikuma, Nagano, listed in 1907. Under its thick thatched roof stands a 306cm Eleven-Headed Kannon cut from one zelkova block.

Chuzenji Yakushido in Ueda, Nagano, is a thatched three-bay hall designated in 1936. Its forward altar platform marks it as a late Heian Amida hall plan.

Tsukama Shrine Main Hall in Matsumoto, Nagano, is a three-bay nagare-zukuri hall roofed in cypress bark, rebuilt by Ogasawara Masayasu in 1439 and listed in 1930.

The Tezuka Family Residence at Narai in Shiojiri, Nagano, comprises a main house and reception wing of 1840 and a storehouse of 1863, designated in 2007.