Edo

A 103-meter Edo-period earthen wall on the east bank of the Amano River at Kongō-ji in Kawachinagano, Osaka. Plastered over a stone footing and capped with pantiles, it marks the boundary of a vanished sub-temple quarter.

Jigan-ji's drum tower in Yao, Osaka, dates to the late Edo period. Its offset upper storey with cusped windows rises above the earthen wall beside the main gate.

Jigan-ji's ablution pavilion in Yao, Osaka, covers barely 12 square metres. Carved details date it to the 1660s, the oldest of the temple's five registered buildings.

Jigan-ji's main hall in Yao, Osaka, rebuilt in 1817, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. This Shinshu hall is 19 metres wide and centres a temple town from 1606.

The Honbo Karamon at Shitennoji Temple in Osaka is an elegant Edo-period Chinese-style gate originally built as the formal entrance to the Gochikoin Hall, where memorial tablets of successive Tokugawa shoguns were enshrined. Featuring Zen-style architecture, exquisite dragon carvings, and Tokugawa hollyhock crest openwork, this gate was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2022. Discover the artistry and history of this rare survivor of the 1945 Osaka Air Raids.

The Sanmon gate of Shinko-ji Temple in Shimoderamachi, Tennoji Ward, Osaka, is a single-bay yakui-mon gate built during the mid-Edo period (1661–1750) and registered as a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008. With its refined gable roof of traditional tiles and outstanding decorative carvings on the beams and rainbow ties, it stands as a precious testament to Edo-era craftsmanship in one of Osaka's most historic temple districts.

At the northwest corner of the Fujii estate in Higashiosaka stands a late-Edo tool storehouse, 5.9 metres of earthen wall under formal round-and-flat tile.

The Fujii main gate in Higashiosaka pairs keyaki doors with an attendants' waiting room, joining the Inui-gura storehouse to form one composed street elevation.

Sixty-one metres of tile-capped earthen wall run the eastern edge of the Fujii estate to meet the main gate, pierced only by one modest bracketed side gate.

Facing the Koya Kaido at the former Mikkaichi post town, this wide-fronted machiya belonged to the Yagi family, cotton wholesalers turned sake brewers.

This two-storey storehouse turns its gable to the old Koya Kaido: white lime plaster above, charred cedar below, a copper door at each window. Registered 2008.

In the satoyama hills of Nose, the northernmost town in Osaka, this thatched village hall enshrines the Medicine Buddha. Traced to 1555 and registered in 2004.

In Kaizuka's temple town south of Osaka, the Yoshimura family traded oil and money as 'Izumiya.' Their late-Edo clothing storehouse survives by the Kishu Kaido.

This registered merchant house in Kaizuka belonged to an oil and money-exchange family, set apart by guest rooms added on its south side in the late Edo period.

This late-Edo earthen storehouse in Kaizuka, Osaka was registered in 2003. Built for a money-changing family, it raises its floor on stone over a buried vault.

The Risai family's main house in Kaizuka's self-governing temple town: a Registered Cultural Property with a stepped gable roof and a possible 17th-century core.

In Kaizuka's old temple town, the Risai family ran an apothecary. Their late-Edo storehouse runs ten bays deep, the south half once stocked with medicinal herbs.

Built in 1807 on a forested hilltop in Shimamoto, Osaka, Wakayama Shrine's main hall carries a forward-curving gable rare in the region, registered in 2018.

Discover the Important Cultural Property katana by master swordsmith Ono Hankei, dedicated to Sumiyoshi Taisha by Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada in 1613. Learn about its history, craftsmanship, and how to visit this sacred treasure in Osaka.

The National Treasure celadon vase 'Bansei', fired at Southern Song China's Longquan kilns, passed from an empress to a Kyoto temple before reaching Izumi, Osaka.