Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Okayama

This 1939 wooden schoolhouse, Kōmyō Gakuen, taught children at the Oku Kōmyōen sanatorium on Nagashima, a rare surviving school built inside such an institution.

This 1949 granite pier at Oku Kōmyōen faces the mainland across a strait, the boat landing that linked the Nagashima sanatorium before the bridge of 1988.

This 1938 concrete cable incline at Oku Kōmyōen lifted supplies from the wharf to the Nagashima sanatorium, back when everything reached the island by boat.

On high ground at Oku Kōmyōen stands a tiny 1943 concrete hōanden that once enshrined the emperor's portrait, a rare survivor at a Hansen's disease sanatorium.

The Okutsuso Main Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1927, stands in the Okutsu Onsen district of Kagamino, Okayama. Its legendary Kagi-yu bath features water rising at 42.6°C directly through the bathtub floor — a foot-source spring experience found at fewer than 30 facilities in all of Japan. Discover this historic wooden inn beloved by printmaker Shiko Munakata and former Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai.

The Okutsu No. 1 Covered Conduit is a 122-metre reinforced-concrete channel faced in coursed stone, built in 1932 on the upper Yoshii River and registered in 2006.

The Okutsu No. 1 Aqueduct is an 18-metre reinforced-concrete rigid-frame bridge of 1932 that carries the power station's canal water across the Kirotani-gawa in Okayama.

The Okutsu Oro-tani-gawa Intake Weir is a small 1932 gravity weir, 4.2 metres wide with an arched sediment outlet, feeding a branch canal of the scheme in Okayama.

The Okutsu Confluence Basin is a 160-metre reinforced-concrete channel of 1930 that gathers surplus and tailwater from the Kamisaihara station for reuse in Okayama.

The Okutsu Kirotani-gawa Intake Weir is a 12-metre gravity weir of 1932 whose intake gate, revetment and arched inlet all survive complete in Okayama.

The Okutsu No. 3 Aqueduct is an 18-metre reinforced-concrete three-span rigid-frame bridge of 1932 carrying a trapezoidal water flume over the Yu-no-tani-gawa in Okayama.

The Okutsu Power Station Regulating Reservoir, nestled in the mountains of Kagamino Town, Okayama Prefecture, is a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1933. This massive reinforced concrete structure features an exceptionally rare buttress-style construction and covers nearly 9,500 square meters. Located near the historic Okutsu Onsen hot springs and the scenic Okutsu Gorge, the site offers a unique blend of industrial heritage and natural beauty.

Standing in the verdant hills of Maniwa City in Okayama Prefecture, the Worship Hall of Kiyama Shrine is an elegant single-story wooden building designed in 1919 by architect Egawa Saburohachi. With its hip-and-gable copper roof, ornate karahafu front porch, and a Western-style truss roof structure, the hall masterfully blends tradition with modern innovation. Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2017, it remains the heart of a shrine with over twelve hundred years of history.

The Connecting Corridor of Kiyama Shrine in Maniwa City, Okayama, is a small but exquisite covered walkway designed in 1919 by the prefectural architect Egawa Saburohachi. Linking the worship hall and the shrine office in a gentle arc, it showcases carved rainbow beams, paired rafters, a softly curved floor, and a weathered copper roof. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2017, it stands within a shrine whose history reaches back more than 1,200 years.

The Former Akasaka Jinjō Kōtō Elementary School Building in Akaiwa City, Okayama, is a wooden two-story schoolhouse built in 1910 in the distinctive 'Egawa Style' associated with prefectural engineer Egawa Saburohachi. With its arched entrance, kikusui roof relief, and tasuki bracing motifs, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2018. Today the building has been reborn as the Children's Library Hotaru, offering a reading space wrapped in the gentle warmth of Meiji-era timber craftsmanship.

Standing at the foot of Shinbashi Bridge on the eastern bank of the Asahi River in Katsuyama, the Former Okanoya Ryokan Guest Room Building is a late Meiji wooden two-story inn registered as a Tangible Cultural Property. Its glass-paned façade jutting out over the stone embankment perfectly captures the romance of a Japanese riverside ryokan.

Standing quietly by the Asahi River and Kamibashi Bridge in Katsuyama, Maniwa City, this elegant Meiji-era single-bay gate and its flanking plank wall feature delicate diamond-lattice transoms, a copper-sheet roof, a seven-treasures openwork wall, and a side door. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2014, the structure forms a graceful link in Katsuyama's preserved old highway townscape.

Rising 21 meters above the embankment of the Asahi River in Kyobashi-cho, Okayama, this steel-framed warning tower was built in 1924 and designated a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2006. Its four legs of angle steel, braced by distinctive ring-type turnbuckles and crowned by a small watchtower with an iron pyramidal roof, form one of Japan's rare surviving Taisho-era urban warning towers. Together with the nearby Kyobashi water pipe bridge and Kyobashi road bridge, it anchors a remarkable cluster of early-modern engineering heritage close to Okayama Castle, Korakuen Garden, and the much-loved monthly Kyobashi Morning Market.

Discover the Former Kurashiki City Hall, now the Kurashiki City Art Museum—a 1960 Brutalist masterpiece designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kenzo Tange. Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2020, the building fuses Japanese tradition with modernist innovation in the heart of the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter.

Built in 1926 as the heart of Japan's first privately funded public observatory, this observation room features an ingenious sliding roof mechanism. It is the very place where legendary amateur astronomer Minoru Honda discovered 12 comets and 11 novae. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property and designated as a Japanese Astronomical Heritage, it holds exceptional significance in the history of science.