Edo

This National Treasure colophon by Yuan literatus Feng Zizhen praises a lost insect scroll by Song painter Yi Yuanji. Sen no Rikyu's letter saved it from being cut.

The Ishiba house in Hirosaki, Aomori, the 18th-century home of a straw-goods merchant to the domain, faces the castle gate behind a komise and is open for a fee.

Iwakiyama Shrine's Romon in Aomori is a vermilion five-bay tower gate built in 1628 as a Buddhist temple's gate, inherited by the shrine after the Meiji reforms.

The Edo Family Residence in Gonohe, Aomori, was home to rural samurai of the Nanbu domain. The large thatched house dates from around 1783; exterior viewing only.

The Former Kasaishi Residence, a thatched 18th-century farmhouse in Towada, Aomori, gives a third of its floor to a stable, the mark of a horse-rearing region.

Hirosaki's oldest surviving samurai house, named in a 1756 register. A national Important Cultural Property built in hiba, its roof frame left open. Free entry.

The Tsugaru Family Mausolea, five structures designated as Important Cultural Properties of Japan, stand within the grounds of Choshoji Temple in Hirosaki, Aomori Prefecture. Built between 1631 and 1753, these mausolea honor successive lords and ladies of the Hirosaki Domain. Their austere unpainted wood exteriors conceal brilliantly painted ceilings featuring dragons and celestial beings. Located at the end of Zenringai — a unique avenue of 33 Soto Zen temples — they offer a profound encounter with the feudal history and sacred architecture of northern Japan.

The Toshogu Shrine Main Hall in Hirosaki, built in 1628, is an Important Cultural Property of plain unpainted wood with Momoyama-period carving and a karahafu porch.

The Mausoleum of Nanbu Toshiyasu in Nanbu, Aomori, built about 1631, is a tiny Important Cultural Property hall of black lacquer, bright paint and gilt metalwork.

A late Edo thatched house in Kuroishi's old samurai quarter: six bays by five, a hipped roof, an early alcove inside. Registered 2006, and still a private home.

Built in 1628 as the main gate of Hodai-in, a Tokugawa mortuary temple in Sunpu, this vermilion gate moved to Oshokyoin in 1918 and is now under restoration.

Kakegawa Castle Goten, rebuilt from 1855 to 1861, is one of just four daimyo palaces left on castle grounds in Japan, with halls, quarters and offices nearly intact.

Discover the magnificent Important Cultural Properties of Kunozan Toshogu Shrine in Shizuoka — from the ornate Romon Gate and Karamon Gate to Ieyasu's sacred mausoleum tower, showcasing early Edo-period architectural brilliance.

Rebuilt in bare zelkova after the 1854 Tokai earthquake and carved by the Izu Ozawa school, the linked halls of Mishima Taisha are an Important Cultural Property.

Yusanji's gate was raised in 1659 at Kakegawa Castle and moved here in 1873. Listed as castle architecture, it is the only castle gate of its era left in Shizuoka.

Rinzai-ji's main hall in Shizuoka, a Zen abbot's hall 22.7 meters wide, became an Important Cultural Property in 1983 and once taught the young Tokugawa Ieyasu.

A national historic site in Shimada, Shizuoka, marking where Edo-period travelers crossed the bridgeless Ōi River carried by porters. Toll office and lodges survive.

The Uematsu family garden beside the Tokaido in Numazu, Shizuoka, registered in 2012, a collection of rare plants with a greenhouse that Siebold praised in 1826.

The Kaise house in Numazu, Shizuoka, a late Edo home of village headmen in the Izu hills, opens its front rooms at festivals to receive the shrine and dances.

The House of the Mishima Calendar Master, a late Edo house of the Kawai family who issued the kana Mishima calendar, displays its woodblocks free of charge.