Edo

Built in 1763 beside the main hall of Renkyo-ji in Nagoya, this priests' quarters keeps the plain look of a working Edo-period temple. Registered in 2017.

This 1812 four-legged gate before the main hall of Renkyo-ji in Nagoya is worked with carving, and a 23-metre plastered wall lines the approach. Registered in 2017.

Linked to Renkyo-ji's main hall in Nagoya, this 1812 shoin holds a raised guest room with a built-in desk and coffered ceiling. Registered in 2017 as a model of its type.

Renkyō-ji Main Hall, set on a quiet wooded hill in eastern Nagoya's Meitō Ward, is the principal worship hall of a Shinshū Takada-ha temple founded by tradition over a thousand years ago. Built in 1758 with a hipped tile roof and a generous 5-by-5-bay plan, it features a distinctive drum-towered entrance and a textbook Pure Land Buddhist interior of outer sanctuary, inner sanctuary, side rooms, and rear hall. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2017 along with five other temple buildings, it preserves an unusually complete Edo-period Shin Buddhist precinct within modern Nagoya.

Renkei-ji Hondo, located in Aguicho on Aichi Prefecture's Chita Peninsula, is a remarkably large Jodo Shinshu main hall completed in 1811 by the renowned Yokomatsu carpenters of Edo-period Aichi. Designated a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2013, the hall preserves rare architectural features including a four-pillar three-bay front porch, round outer-sanctuary pillars, and a stunning double-folded coffered ceiling above its inner sanctuary — a hidden treasure of regional Japanese craftsmanship.

Held in the Hosa Library in Nagoya, the Song Edition of the Taiping Shenghui Fang (Kanazawa Bunko Version) is a Southern Song printed copy of the imperial medical encyclopedia originally compiled in 100 volumes by Wang Huaiyin under the command of Emperor Taizong. Designated an Important Cultural Property, it traveled from Hōjō Sanetoki's Kanazawa Bunko through Toyotomi Hidetsugu and Tokugawa Ieyasu to the first Owari lord Tokugawa Yoshinao. The 24 surviving printed booklets, supplemented by 27 Keichō-era manuscript volumes, bear the distinctive 'Kanazawa Bunko' and 'Gohon' seals on every volume, making it a primary witness to East Asian medical history.

Isaniwa Shrine in Matsuyama keeps four buildings of 1667 in the rare hachiman-zukuri form, plus 22 sangaku tablets, five minutes uphill from Dogo Onsen station.

A mid-Edo keep on a hill in Uwajima, three storeys of white plaster with stacked gables, no loopholes and no stone chutes. One of Japan's twelve surviving keeps.

Ozu Castle in Ehime Prefecture preserves four original Edo-period turrets—Daidokoro, Kōran, Owata, and Sannomaru Minami Sumi—all designated as Important Cultural Properties of Japan. Together with its faithfully timber-reconstructed four-story keep completed in 2004, and the charming castle town known as the Little Kyoto of Iyo, Ozu Castle offers an authentic journey into feudal Japan.

The Sannomaru South Corner Turret of Ozu Castle in Ozu City, Ehime Prefecture, is the oldest surviving structure in the castle complex, rebuilt in 1766. Designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan, it preserves ingenious defensive features including hidden loopholes and bullet-resistant drum walls, offering an authentic glimpse into Edo-period military architecture.

A Kansei era townhouse in Uchiko, Ehime, listed with its 1885 rear parlour. Built before the wax boom, its upper floor holds no reception rooms. Exterior only.

An early Edo worship hall on Omishima, seven bays wide beneath a cypress-bark gable, with round pillars, no ceiling and a curved front canopy. Designated in 1953.

Seven Meiji-period buildings at the Niihama house of Hirose Saihei, who modernised the Besshi copper mine. Designated in 2003 and open inside for 550 yen.

A late 18th-century thatched farmhouse moved from Besshiyama to Kamikuroiwa in 1975. Its rooms sit in a single row with almost no earth floor. Free entry.

Toshima Family Residence in Matsuyama has seven designated buildings around a 1758 main house whose thatched roofs bend into a reversed Z. It stays a private home.

Standing on the wooded slopes of Mount Tomisu in Ozu City, Ehime, the Buddha Hall of Nyohoji Temple was completed in 1670 when the second lord of Ozu Domain, Kato Yasuoki, invited the renowned Zen master Bankei Yotaku to refound the temple. Uniquely combining the functions of a Buddha hall and a Zen meditation hall within a single structure, it preserves its original form almost unchanged and was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1992 as a defining example of early modern Zen Buddha hall architecture.

Matsuyama Castle, perched atop 132-meter Mount Katsuyama in the heart of Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, is one of only twelve castles in Japan retaining original tower keeps from the Edo period or earlier. Founded by the warrior Katō Yoshiaki in 1602, its current tower keep was rebuilt in 1854 as the last fully realized castle architecture of the Edo era. With 21 structures designated as Important Cultural Properties, including Japan's only surviving watchtower-style two-story turret and the nation's largest climbing stone walls, Matsuyama Castle offers an unparalleled experience of Japanese feudal fortress architecture.

Discover the Manabe Family Residence, a National Important Cultural Property in Shikokuchuo City, Ehime. This 17th-century thatched farmhouse is the oldest surviving dwelling in the prefecture, nestled in Kiriyama—a mountain village steeped in Heike clan legends.

A headman's compound in Matsuyama, an Important Cultural Property since 1970: an 1866 main house with a thatched roof monitor, a gatehouse and two storehouses.

Discover Hoshigamori, the sacred worship point for Mt. Ishizuchi at Yokomineji Temple in Saijo, Ehime. This National Scenic Beauty features an Edo-era iron torii and panoramic views of Shikoku's highest peak.