Edo
江戸Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Edo period (1603 – 1868). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
Discover the Uchi-Ōkura, a registered tangible cultural property within the Kajihara estate in Ōshio, Himeji. This Edo-period earthen storehouse reflects the prosperity of salt industry landowners in Hyogo Prefecture.
Discover the Kajiwara Family Residence Storehouse in Himeji's Oshio district, an Edo-period earthen storehouse registered as a Tangible Cultural Property. Built in 1842 by a prominent salt-field owning family, it features elegant white plaster walls and fine decorative plasterwork.
The Yagi family's household storehouse at Himeji, the only building on the site firmly dated to 1846, a two-story mud-walled store with a raised-beam roof.
Main house of the Yagi family, hereditary headmen on the Ibo River in Himeji, a large single-story farmhouse under a hip-and-gable roof, registered in 2021.
A two-story mud-walled storehouse in the Yagi compound at Himeji. Its west half is a shoin parlor for receiving domain officials, its east half a plain store.
The rice granary of the Yagi family, who held the annual tax rice at Himeji. This two-story mud-walled store sits by a former waterway for loading by boat.
The gatehouse of the Yagi compound at Himeji. Behind its formal tiled facade with a wicket door lay the estate's counting room to the west and a cattle shed.
Discover Gokurakuji Niomon, an early-Edo two-story temple gate built in 1728 in Taka Town, Hyogo. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property featuring rare Daibutsu-yō details and a striking vase-shaped strut, set against quiet rural mountainsides.
Saishō-ji Main Hall in Kamisakabe, Amagasaki, Hyōgo Prefecture is a 1722 Jōdo Shinshū Hongan-ji-ha temple hall registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in March 2024. With its seven-by-seven bay irimoya hip-and-gable roof in formal hongawara tile and archaic square pillars at every bay, it stands as a fine example of a mid-sized Pure Land main hall and the historic heart of the old Kamisakabe village community.
Discover Hontokuji Anzaisho, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Himeji, Hyogo. This Edo-period shoin-style building once hosted Emperor Meiji and features exquisite tokonoma alcove decorations and refined craftsmanship.
The Main Hall of Daishin-ji Temple in Hōjō, Kasai City, Hyogo Prefecture, is an Edo-period Pure Land Buddhist hall registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2010. Belonging to the Seizan Zenrin-ji branch of the Jōdo-shū sect, it stands quietly along the old highway of Hōjō-no-shuku, a former post town that flourished as the temple town of Sumiyoshi Shrine and Sakami-ji, contributing to one of Hyogo Prefecture's most evocative heritage streetscapes.
An 1820 tea house on the grounds of a Sasayama sake-brewing family, where a six-mat room and a lintel rail can be closed to the classical four-and-a-half-mat tea size.
A late-Edo annex at the northeast corner of the Nishio compound in Sasayama, following the old San'in highway. Its stepped roof, gate and wall frame the entrance garden.
A two-storey earthen storehouse on the Nishio grounds in Sasayama, joining two separate vaults under one placed roof, with twin doorways under an earthen canopy.
Along the north edge of the Nishio compound in Sasayama, an outer wall follows the old San'in highway to a copper-roofed gate, linking the main hall to the tea house.
Matsuso-gura is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Takasago, Hyogo Prefecture, built in 1823. This Edo-period earthen storehouse is linked to Shinsengumi member Kawai Kisaburo and preserves the maritime heritage of Takasago, a historic Kitamae-bune trading port on the Seto Inland Sea.
Yoryuji Nio Gate stands as the main entrance to Ryuzan Yoryuji, a Tendai-school mountain temple in Taka Town, Hyogo Prefecture. Built during the Edo period (1661–1751) and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2013, this three-bay, single-entrance two-story tower gate showcases refined proportions and subtle Daibutsu-yo architectural influences. Discover this quiet gem of northern Harima, along with its Heian-period Buddhist statues and sacred forest.
Tucked into the mountains of Tako, Hyogo, Yoryuji Main Hall is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1751. This Tendai temple, traditionally founded in the seventh century by Hodo Sennin, preserves a remarkable group of Heian-period Buddhist sculptures and over 1,300 years of devotional history centered on the legendary Willow Kannon.
The Lower Stone Bridge of the Hirao Family Residence, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Morio, Toyooka City, Hyogo, is a late Edo-period (1751–1829) stone bridge measuring 3.0m long and 1.5m wide. Built of four combined stones, it spans the Morio River within the grounds of the Hirao family — once Tajima's largest landowner and grand village headman (ōjōya). Together with the estate's gates, storehouses, and washing shed, it preserves a rare and complete pre-modern rural landowner's compound.
A late Edo-period stone bridge at the Hirao Family Residence in Toyooka, Hyogo. This 3.0-meter arched stone span across the Morio River, refined in the Meiji era and registered as a cultural property in 2008, links the gatehouse to the main residence of one of Tajima's foremost landowning families.