Edo

A registered belfry at Unkoji temple in Seto, Aichi. A ridge tag dates it to 1810 and names its carpenter. Local Akazu tiles roof it; the bell was recast in 2009.

Eijuji's Kyozo is a tiny mud-walled storehouse, about three metres square, in the temple's northeast. Plaster walls and a pyramidal roof guarded its scriptures.

Joined to the east of Eijuji's main hall, the kuri and shoin form its largest building: a kitchen with earthen floor and stove, and two formal fifteen-mat rooms.

Eijuji's mountain gate is a four-legged zelkova structure carved in 1794 by the noted Shinshu Tatekawa school, its beams wrapped in deep three-dimensional relief.

On the west of Eijuji's front garden, the shuryo was the monks' communal quarters. An earthen passage runs east, and six rooms of graded size fill two rows.

Southwest of Eijuji's main hall stands the zendo, a meditation hall of 1722. A gabled canopy fronts it; tatami fills the center, board floors run along the sides.

Eijuji Temple Main Hall in Shinshiro, Aichi, was built in 1697 and registered in 2019. Six rooms, four round pillars and traces of a vanished earth floored passage.

The Kuri (priests' quarters) of Enmyō-ji in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, is an unusual structure that began life as a merchant townhouse in the late Edo-period castle town and was relocated and reassembled within the temple precinct in the mid-Meiji period. With a gabled pantile roof and a footprint of about 314 square meters, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2012. As a rare surviving example of a castle-town machiya repurposed as a temple residence, it pairs naturally with a walk through Inuyama's preserved old town and a visit to nearby Inuyama Castle.

Standing in Inuyama's historic temple district just minutes from the National Treasure castle, the Enmyo-ji Belfry is a three-meter-square open-sided bell tower built between 1661 and 1751. Its Zen-style structural body, densely packed two-stepped brackets, jar-strut gable decoration, and deeply curved eaves earned it Registered Tangible Cultural Property status in 2012. Discover a hidden architectural gem set within a temple famous for its 300-year-old weeping cherry tree.

Discover Enmyoji Temple's Main Hall, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Inuyama, Aichi. Built in the early Edo period and renovated in 1689, this Jodo Shinshu sanctuary preserves rare architectural features and stands beside a magnificent 300-year-old weeping cherry tree.

A four-and-a-half-mat tea room of 1826 hidden behind a house in Inuyama, Aichi. Woven ceiling over the host, boarded over guests. Registered in 2013, open yearly.

Ome Shrine sits on a wooded hill in Seto City's Akazu district, listed in Japan's tenth-century shrine register and home to a Main Hall built in 1805 by local master carpenters. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in March 2024, this elegant sanken-sha nagare-zukuri sanctuary stands beside a seventh-century burial mound in the heart of Akazu—one of Japan's six ancient pottery centers.

A late-Edo grain store in Inuyama facing the inner gate across the compound. Five and a half ken long and 51 square metres, the largest store on the Okumura plot.

A late-Edo merchant house on Inuyama's old highway, rebuilt after the 1842 fire. Seven ken wide, plaster-clad, with a low tsushi upper floor. Registered 1999.

A small late-Edo gate at the former Okumura merchant house in Inuyama, Aichi: black-plastered front, white rear, just six square meters, registered in 1999.

Rebuilt in Inuyama after an 1842 fire by the tile makers who revived Inuyama ware, the Ozeki Family Main House keeps a vast earthen work hall. Registered 1999.

The Ozeki Family Storehouse in Inuyama is a two storey earthen walled kura of about 1842. A pent roof shelters its east front and its ground floor is a gallery.

Discover the Onoda Family Residence Nagayamon in Toyohashi, Aichi — a registered tangible cultural property built in 1849 by a village headman inspired by Edo samurai gate architecture. Explore its history, architectural significance, and visiting tips.

The Main Hall of Kagaku-ji Temple in Nishio City, Aichi Prefecture, is a Rinzai Zen hōjō-style hall reconstructed in 1684 with funds from the family of Kira Yoshinaka — the historical figure at the center of Japan's legendary Forty-Seven Rōnin tale. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, this remarkably preserved structure retains most of its original 17th-century timber. Discover the Kira clan's legacy, imperial treasures, and the rich historical landscape of the Kira district.

At Kakuo-ji, a Rinzai temple in Fuso, Aichi, the 1840 kuri is a Registered Cultural Property: a 24-meter temple kitchen with a roof smoke vent and a decorated gable.