Meiji

Discover the Nagano Holy Saviour Church, a registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1898 by Canadian missionary J.G. Waller. This Gothic-style brick chapel near Zenkoji Temple features pointed arches, rose windows, buttresses, and stained glass—a rare architectural gem in Nagano.

The Japan Crane Association Nagano Branch Museum in Nagano City is a nationally registered tangible cultural property that preserves the former Ikeda Police Station, originally built in 1893 during the Meiji era. Discover this charming two-story Western-style wooden building featuring a hipped-roof entrance porch and exquisite lace-like barge board decorations that showcase the unique beauty of Japan's pseudo-Western architectural tradition.

Discover Nippon Sei Ko Kai Matsumoto Holy Cross Church, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Nagano Prefecture. Built in 1910 by Canadian missionary F.W.C. Kennedy, this Gothic-style wooden church features scissor truss ceilings, pointed arches, and a striking bell tower near Matsumoto Castle.

A tiny thatched watermill hut at Hanaya Hotel in Bessho Onsen, barely a ken and a half square, with chestnut posts that resist damp and a waterwheel on its west wall.

West of the Miharaya shop, the 1872 North Storehouse dresses its street gable in namako-kabe and sets its windows high, so two floors read as three from the road.

West of Zenkoji temple, the 1872 Miharaya shop sets an open storefront beside a namako-kabe warehouse. This miso and soy-sauce brewer, founded in 1848, still works here.

South of the shop, the 1877 Middle Storehouse lifts a hipped third storey above a two-storey earthen body, anchoring the alley view along Uchiwaya-koji.

West of the South Storehouse, the 1877 West Storehouse is a two-storey gabled earthen store for miso, linked on its upper floor to the South Storehouse next door.

Adjoining the Middle Storehouse, the 1877 East Storehouse is the largest of the group: a long soy-sauce brewing warehouse with shuttered windows on its south gable.

On the southern edge of the grounds, the 1877 South Storehouse is a low earthen store whose eastern half held the koji room where the brewery's fermentation once began.

Standing in the wooded grounds of Karuizawa Taliesin beside Lake Shiozawa in Nagano Prefecture, the Meiji 44 Hall is a registered National Tangible Cultural Property—a careful relocation and restoration of the original Karuizawa Post Office built in 1911. Designed by railway carpenter Koda Ryokichi, this two-story wooden Western-style building features a strictly symmetrical facade, hipped tile roof, and the iconic mint-green German-style lap siding restored to its original Meiji-era color. Today it houses Restaurant Sonett on the ground floor and the Fukazawa Koko Wild Flower Museum on the second floor.