Edo

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.

Osaka's Kyou Shooku library holds eleven Song-printed volumes of the Shiji jijie, the oldest Shiji commentary, a National Treasure once owned by Naito Konan.

Printed in Southern Song China in 1139, these 17 National Treasure volumes of the Maoshi zhengyi rest at Kyo-U Library in Osaka with Kanazawa Bunko seals.

The Tobiseiji Hanaike at the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, is a National Treasure regarded as the finest surviving example of Chinese Yuan-dynasty Longquan celadon with iron-spot decoration. Standing 27.3 cm tall in the elegant yuhuchun form, twenty-one iron spots dance across its jade-green glaze. Discover this masterpiece treasured in Japan for centuries through the Konoike merchants and the famed Ataka Collection.

A herdboy rides his ox home through falling snow in Li Di's Returning Herd in Snow, a Southern Song National Treasure kept at Nara's Yamato Bunkakan museum.

The Matsura Screens, a National Treasure pair of gold-leaf screens, show 18 life-size Edo courtesans. See the 22 kimono and rosary at Nara's Yamato Bunkakan.

The Main Hall of Ganjo-in Temple, known as Aizen-do, stands on the hillside of Mount Hachiman in Taketa, Oita Prefecture, as the city's oldest surviving wooden structure. Built in 1635 by Hida master carpenters under the patronage of Lord Nakagawa Hisamori, this nationally designated Important Cultural Property features sophisticated Zen-style bracket complexes, fan-shaped rafters, and distinctive demon carvings at its eaves. Enshrining Aizen Myoo, the deity of love, it is celebrated as one of Oita's most popular romantic power spots.

Discover the Former Yahata Family Residence (Kyū Yahata-ke Jūtaku), an Important Cultural Property in Hita, Oita Prefecture. This rare 18th-century kudo-zukuri farmhouse preserves the traditional split-roof architecture of rural Kyushu.

The Gyōtoku Family Residence in Yoake, Hita City, Ōita Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property dating from the late Edo period. Once home to generations of official physicians serving the Kurume Domain, the residence features the distinctive L-shaped magari-ya roofline of western Ōita and a spacious earthen-floor layout typical of grand village headman dwellings. Visitors can explore the house, its borrowed-scenery garden, and a medical heritage museum free of charge.

Kōkan Bridge is a magnificent single-arch stone bridge completed in 1824, spanning the gorge of the Mie River between Usuki City and Bungo-Ōno City in Oita Prefecture. Boasting the longest stone arch span in Japan at the time of its construction, this Important Cultural Property represents the origin of large-scale stone arch bridge engineering in Kyushu. Discover the story of three merchants who sacrificed their fortunes to build it and the enduring beauty of Aso welded tuff masonry.

The stone bridge and channel wall before the gate of the Higashi Betsuin in Usa. A late-Edo girder bridge, 9.5 m wide with nine cambered girders, framing the front.

The sutra repository of the Higashi Betsuin in Usa, completed in 1799, the compound's oldest building. Inside turns an octagonal revolving case in a fine storehouse.

The drum tower of the Higashi Betsuin in Usa, a late-Edo two-storey structure housing a drum. With cusped windows east and west, it accents the temple skyline.