Edo

Discover the gate of Chōhōji Temple, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Tano, Kochi. This Jodo Shinshu temple, built in the Edo period, features traditional architecture and a famous reclining dragon plum tree in Shikoku's smallest town.

Discover Taku Seibyo, one of Japan's three great Confucian temples and a nationally designated Important Cultural Property. Built in 1708 in Saga Prefecture, this stunning vermilion temple features Chinese-style carvings, a legendary dragon ceiling painting, and the Sekisai ritual held for over 300 years.

The Sanmon gate of Iōji Temple in Ōchi Town, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan. Founded in 1383 by the Hata clan of the Matsura warrior confederacy, this Sōtō Zen temple was once one of the three principal Zen monasteries in Kyushu. Highlights include a 450-year-old cedar tree and one of only six surviving Hizen bells in Japan.

Iō-ji is a Sōtō Zen temple founded in 1383 in Ōchi, Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture, whose main hall is a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property. The temple treasures include one of only six surviving Hizen bells in Japan, a 450-year-old cedar tree, and a hidden Yakushi Nyorai statue unveiled once every 25 years.

Nonaka Usaien in Saga City is a historic apothecary building dating from around 1796, registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property. Standing along the former Nagasaki Kaido highway, its imposing plastered facade and grand central gable preserve the atmosphere of a prosperous Edo-period merchant house. Discover the story of this remarkable building and the traditional herbal medicine that has been produced here for over two centuries.

Discover Kitain Temple in Kawagoe, Saitama — a historic Tendai Buddhist temple founded in 830, home to the only surviving buildings of Edo Castle, 540 expressive Rakan stone statues, and deep ties to the Tokugawa shogunate. A must-visit day trip from Tokyo.

The Akaido at Menuma Shoden is a small late-Edo hall built around a well that supplies aka, the water offered to Buddhist deities, with a shrine to Suitengu.

Discover Kangiin Gosha Daimyojin, a registered tangible cultural property built in 1783 at Menuma Shodenzan in Kumagaya, Saitama. This colorful shrine honors five deities with exquisite Edo-period craftsmanship.

The Sanpo Kojinsha at Menuma Shoden is a single-bay shrine to the hearth deity Sanbo Kojin. Barely 3.9 square meters, its dense carving shows real skill.

The Shoro at Menuma Shoden is a two-story bell tower on a double stone-and-concrete base. Its 1761 core, reshaped by later repairs, rises unusually tall.

The Tenmansha at Menuma Shoden is a single-bay shrine to Tenjin, deity of learning. Nearly a twin of the northern rear shrine, it shows how the precinct grew.

The Main Hall of Koshigaya Hisaizu Shrine, the principal guardian shrine of Koshigaya City in Saitama Prefecture, is a remarkable late-Edo-period structure built in 1789. Designed in the three-bay nagare-zukuri style with a copper-plate kawarabō roof, degumi bracket complexes, and double-tier rafters, it is renowned for the elaborate, finely carved unpainted woodwork that adorns its eaves, beams, and brackets. Officially registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property on March 13, 2025, the shrine occupies a long, tree-lined precinct with deep historical ties to the Tokugawa shogunate, scholar Hirata Atsutane, and the wisteria designated as a Saitama Prefecture Natural Monument.

Discover the Sanmon Gate of Kongoji Temple in Kawajima, Saitama — a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property connected to the Hiki clan, key figures in the Kamakura shogunate. Explore samurai history in rural Japan.

Discover Kongoji Dainichido, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Kawajima, Saitama. This memorial hall of the Hiki clan features a Kano-school dragon ceiling painting and connects to the dramatic history of the Kamakura shogunate.

Suisokuken is a late Edo-period farmhouse originally from the Hida Takayama region, relocated in 1938 by the legendary industrialist and tea master Matsunaga Yasuzaemon (Jian) to the woodland grounds of Heirinji Temple in Niiza City, Saitama. Combining the robust timber architecture of Hida folk houses with the refined aesthetic of a modern tea practitioner, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2016 — the first such designation in Niiza City. The surrounding garden, set within a nationally designated Natural Monument forest, is free to visit and renowned for its stunning autumn foliage.

Discover the Jingu Saishu Shokusha Main Building, a nationally designated Important Cultural Property in Ise City. Originally built as the guest hall of Keikoin, a Buddhist nunnery whose abbesses revived Ise Jingu's sacred Shikinen Sengu ceremony, this early Edo-period shoin-zukuri masterpiece stands along the famous Oharai-machi Street near the Inner Shrine.

Built in 1863 for samurai guarding Matsusaka Castle, two row houses face each other across a hedged lane in Mie, the largest of their kind, still lived in today.

Discover Asakichi Ryokan Maegura, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Ise, Mie Prefecture. This Edo-period storehouse is part of the last surviving inn on the historic Furuichi pilgrimage road connecting Ise Grand Shrine's outer and inner sanctuaries.

The Kadoya Ryokan Main Building in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, is a remarkably preserved Edo-period inn on the historic Ise Betsu Kaidō highway. Its traditional façade with sliding shutters and lattice windows, along with pilgrimage confraternity tablets, vividly recalls the era of mass Ise pilgrimage. Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2008.

At the Nagatani-en works in Iga, a multi-chamber climbing kiln runs 34 meters up a south-facing slope. Built in the late Edo period, it fired Iga ware into the 1970s.