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.
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.
Aizendo, the main hall of Ganjoin in Taketa, Oita, was built in 1635; its brackets bear carved demons and its walls painted celestials, shown each spring and autumn.
The Former Yahata Family Residence in Hita, Oita, a farmhouse of the late Edo period (1751 to 1829), keeps the original separate-wing form found in Kyushu.
The Gyotoku Family Residence in Hita City, Oita Prefecture, built between 1842 and 1847, is a large thatched farmhouse with the L-shaped roof typical of the region.
The Kokan Bridge of 1824 in Oita, built by three local merchants, had the longest stone arch in Japan at 25.1 metres and began the great stone arches of Kyushu.
Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1975, this thatched farmhouse at Niogi is the oldest house in Oita City, with an upward-hinged shutter and adzed posts.
Hosokawa Tadaoki raised this two-storey gate at Komo Shrine in Nakatsu, Oita, in 1622. Skirt roofs balance its tall frame. An Important Cultural Property since 1988.
This small hall at Senpukuji in Kunisaki, Oita shelters the stone grave of the monk who founded the temple in 1375. Rebuilt in 1636, it is 4.01 metres wide.
Chofukuji Hondo at Hita, built in 1669, is Kyushu's oldest Shin Buddhist main hall: carved dragon transoms, original lotus paintings, and where Hirose Tanso taught.
The Inoue Family Residence Sake Brewery in Hita, Oita, is an 1847 earthen store of 108 square metres with a namako tile dado and beams alternating every 1.8 metres.
The Inoue Family Residence Storehouse in Hita, Oita, built in 1831, is the oldest Inoue building: a 45-square-metre earthen storehouse with a tatami room upstairs.
Kasuga Shrine Kagura Hall in Bungotakada, Oita, is an 1835 stage for sacred dance with a tiled roof and an angled bridge to its dressing room, registered in 2011.
Kasuga Shrine Approach Torii in Bungotakada, Oita, is a stone torii of 1720 with a sharply upturned lintel, the oldest of the shrine's 13 registrations.
Kasuga Shrine Bell Tower in Bungotakada, Oita, is an 1830 belfry with a flared skirt and tiled roof, a survival of Buddhist-Shinto fusion, registered in 2011.
Kasuga Shrine Shinmon Gate in Bungotakada, Oita, is an 1845 four-legged gate, 3.4 metres wide, with guardian figures behind a lattice; registered in 2011.
Kasuga Shrine Yasaka Subsidiary Shrine in Bungotakada, Oita, is a late Edo miniature shrine of 1.2 square metres, adorned with carvings; registered 2011.
Kasuga Shrine West Gate in Bungotakada, Oita, is a late Edo gate 1.9 metres wide, painted red and nicknamed the west red gate; it marks the western entrance.
Kasuga Shrine Main Hall in Bungotakada, Oita, is a tall late Edo sanctuary of unpainted zelkova housing four Kasuga deities, with lion and elephant carvings.