Meiji

Just fifteen square metres, this 1877 storehouse adjoins a soy sauce works. Note the set-on tiled roof, notched weatherboarding and black plaster window frames.

A registered Meiji house in Sekiya, Niigata, raised after the Boshin War burned its predecessor in 1868. Exposed gable framing, bold beams, shoin rooms. Not open.

An 1882 earthen-walled kura beside the Nakanokuchi River, set on high ground against flood. Heavy rafters, close-set posts. Registered 2023. Privately held.

A small detached room of middle Meiji date, open south onto a garden. Shoin alcove, tokonoma, a round tea hearth in the floor. Registered 2023. Not open.

The oldest of the five Sakata buildings in Gosen, Niigata, dating to early Meiji. Small but soundly built, its black-plastered openings open the estate's history.

The brick chimney at Sasaiwai Sake Brewery in Niigata City's Nishikan Ward was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2025. Built with English bond brickwork at this sake brewery founded in 1899, it stands as a symbol of Japan's sake-brewing heritage and Meiji-era industrial architecture. Visitors can enjoy brewery tours, sake tastings, and nearby attractions including Yahiko Shrine and Niigata Wine Coast.

The Sanmon Gate of Jigenji Temple in Ojiya City, Niigata Prefecture, is a registered tangible cultural property built in 1892, featuring a magnificent two-story structure with intricate dragon and crane carvings. The temple is famous as the site of the 1868 Ojiya Conference, a pivotal moment in the Boshin War, making it a must-visit destination for history and architecture enthusiasts.

The Shūseian storehouse in Tokimizu, Ojiya City, Niigata Prefecture, is a Meiji-era earthen kura originally built by the Hoshino family. Featuring exceptionally thick timbers and a robust ox-beam structure designed for heavy snowfall, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2022. Together with a teahouse named by the renowned military physician and tea master Ishiguro Tadanori, it preserves the merchant heritage of Echigo.

Three bays wide, ten bays deep: this 1893 Murakami townhouse holds a double-height living room and a boxed staircase with an iron safe built in. Registered 2005.

The Sōsendō Kashiten Nishi-Dozō is a nationally registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1887 in the castle town of Murakami, Niigata Prefecture. This Meiji-era earthen storehouse features distinctive black lacquer plaster bands and finely crafted doors, standing as part of a confectionery shop compound with roots in the Edo period amidst one of Japan's best-preserved historic townscapes.

The main hall of Dairinji is the third on its site, rebuilt in 1883 after fire and war. A plain six-room Zen frame reserves its carved brackets for the altar zone.

The Takahashi Ameya Main Building in Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture, is the historic home of Japan's oldest continuously operating candy shop, founded in 1624. This Meiji-era timber townhouse features a distinctive gangi covered walkway and lattice windows characteristic of snow-country merchant architecture, earning its registration as a National Tangible Cultural Property. The shop's signature awa-ame candy was a tribute to the Imperial Household, and the tradition of candy-making continues under the 14th-generation proprietor.

Niigata burned twice in 1908. Rebuilding two years later, this restaurant raised a brick storehouse in header bond, its fire wall rising above the tiled roof.

A brick gate of 1904 facing the old Mikuni Kaido highway, its English-bond piers crowned with a carved stone band and a dentil capstone. Registered in 2022.

A brick building of nineteen square metres, built in 1907 to store, clean and refuel the kerosene lamps used by boarders at Kamo Agriculture and Forestry School.

Registered in 2008, this late Meiji brick gate in Gosen City sets English bond beside Flemish bond at the prefecture's first technical school of 1903.

A 149-metre brick wall of 1911 steps down Niigata's dune slope beside the 1914 gate that students call the Akamon. The two were registered together in 2005.

Built in 1875, the No. 1 Rice Storehouse at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro runs some 32 meters. Its plastered wall records a thousand-hectare landowner's wealth.

The No. 1 Storehouse at the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro, built in 1875, is a two-story vault whose gable bears the family crest: a landowner's document store.

The Gate and Wall of the Ninomiya Residence in Seiro began as an 1877 row-house gate. A 1935 rebuild raised the entrance and added a roofed wall along the road.