Important Cultural Property of Nagasaki

Discover the Essel Telegraaf, the only surviving domestically-made telegraph from Japan's Edo period. Housed at Isahaya Museum of Art & History in Nagasaki Prefecture, this Important Cultural Property reveals how late-Edo innovators adapted Dutch technology.

Discover the Tachi inscribed Naminohira Ieyasu, a Kamakura-period Important Cultural Property crafted by Japan's longest-lived sword school, the Satsuma Naminohira lineage. This rare 67.5 cm blade, designated in 1955, preserves the Yamato tradition through its tight ko-itame hada and disciplined thin suguha temper line.

Preserved in Tsushima City, Nagasaki, the Chōsen-koku Kokushin are three Joseon-dynasty appointment documents issued in 1477, 1482, and 1503 to Japanese mariners connected with the Sōda clan of medieval Tsushima. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1974, they are the oldest substantial set of Joseon appointment letters surviving in Japan and a first-class source for understanding the diplomacy that transformed pirates into licensed traders.

The main hall of Kiyomizudera in Nagasaki, built in 1668 with funds from the Chinese merchant He Gaocai, has an open aisle and Obaku-style details unusual in Japan.

Saikai Bridge in Nagasaki, completed in 1955, crosses the Ino-ura Strait on a 216-metre steel arch, Japan's first strait crossing and a post-war landmark.

The Saiwai Bridge at Hirado Port, Nagasaki, a stone arch of 1702 built by local masons for the lord of Hirado, carries the skills of the town's trading-port days.

The Former Shitsu Rescue Center in Nagasaki, built 1883 to 1885 by Father de Rotz for villagers, keeps a workshop, macaroni factory and net factory on a slope.

Shitsu Church in Nagasaki, consecrated in 1882 and completed in 1909 by Father de Rotz, is a rare early church of brick and timber; visits need advance notice.

A gabled, tile-roofed late-Edo farmhouse in Tsutsu on southern Tsushima, designated an Important Cultural Property in 1969 for its regional plan and frame.

An Important Cultural Property of 1731 at Nagasaki's Sōfukuji, where Kannon, the deified general Guan Yu, and the guardian Idaten share one Ōbaku-style hall.

Sōfukuji's vermilion outer gate in Nagasaki, rebuilt in 1849 by Japanese carpenters. The Dragon Palace Gate is the temple's most Chinese-looking building.

Built in 1728 at Nagasaki's Sofukuji temple, this two-story tower holds both a bell and a drum. Its frame is Chinese carpentry; its roof follows Japanese design.

Built in 1666, the Maso Gate of Sōfukuji temple in Nagasaki leads to the hall of Maso, the Chinese sea goddess once enshrined there by visiting trading ships.

Built in 1918 by master builder Tetsukawa Yosuke, this hilltop brick church above Hirado Strait pairs a dark exterior with a pale, camellia-carved interior.

A mid-Edo thatched farmhouse in Nagasaki City, an Important Cultural Property since 1969, with a three-room plan and thought to be the oldest in the prefecture.

The Former Latin Seminary beside Oura Cathedral in Nagasaki, a half-timbered brick building of 1875 by Father de Rotz, now houses the Kirishitan Museum.

A single-storey merchant's house of about 1868 in Nagasaki, its stone walls from Amakusa and veranda granite from Vladivostok. Important Cultural Property, 1966.

Nagasaki’s registered properties across designations, with featured heritage and travel notes.

The complete kokuhō catalogue — browse by prefecture, period, and category.

Nationwide jūyō bunkazai — architecture, sculpture, painting, crafts, and documents.