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.
On a stone wall in Saku, Nagano, this late Edo storehouse gave up a ground-floor corner to a well house and carries its pantile roof clear above the earthen shell.
Sangoso in Karuizawa, Nagano, a late Edo thatched farmhouse of the Kofu basin moved here in 1934 with a concrete basement, is an early example of a relocated minka.
Late Edo two-storey brewing storehouse at Shioya Brewery in Suzaka, Nagano, near-square in plan, with 2 brick koji rooms added in late Meiji. Listed in 2007.
Late Edo miso storehouse of Shioya Brewery in Suzaka, Nagano: 185 square metres of earthen walls, giant wooden vats and resident microbes. Listed in 2007.
Late Edo storehouse in the southwest corner of Shioya Brewery, Suzaka, Nagano, where soy sauce mash matures for one to two years. Plain and large; listed in 2007.
A late Edo-period yakuimon gate, 2.4 metres wide, that once fronted the Kurosu residence in Iida's samurai quarter and now leads into an education association annex.
Built in 1860 at the center of a Matsumoto village shrine, this open kagura hall has a deep hip-and-gable tile roof, a plaster dragon and a ritual hearth below.
The original main sanctuary of a Matsumoto village shrine, built in 1750 in the one-bay nagare style, with an openwork transom of rabbits and waves and a crest.
Built in 1790 and moved from a nearby hamlet to this Matsumoto shrine in 1915, this one-bay sanctuary shows a phoenix carved in the round and steeply curved beams.
Smallest and youngest of three sanctuaries at a Matsumoto village shrine, built in 1851 and moved here in 1915, with a dragon carved in the round on its porch.
The gate of Shorenji in Matsushiro, a four-legged gate of the mid-Edo period (1661 to 1751) moved here around 1886, resembles the gates of the lords' mausoleums.
Zenkyoji Main Hall in Nagano City is a 1736 Shin Buddhist hall of 621 square meters, with round columns, a double veranda and a dragon ceiling. Registered in 2025.
The Zenkoji Bell Tower in Nagano, rebuilt in 1853, rests on six posts for the six characters of the nenbutsu and hangs a bell recast in 1667. Registered in 2020.
Zenzanji Temple Priests' Quarters, an 1830 tiled kitchen-residence in Ueda, Nagano, shows beams stacked in three tiers on its gables. Registered in 2024.
Zenzanji Temple Entrance in Ueda, Nagano, is a late-Edo hall whose formal porch, with its large oigata scrolls, was registered as a model of design in 2024.
Zenzanji Temple Main Gate in Ueda, Nagano, is a late-Edo thatched gate 2.7 metres wide at the top of stone steps, moved here in 1933 and registered in 2024.
Zenzanji Temple Main Hall in Ueda, Nagano, is a mid-Edo thatched hall of 267 square metres with a dragon-carved porch, registered as a cultural property in 2024.
The main house of the Takizawa Residence in Chikuma, Nagano, is a 333-square-meter mid-Edo thatched farmhouse. Registered in 2017, it has no central pillar at all.
North of the main house at the Takizawa Residence in Chikuma, Nagano, stands a late-Edo storehouse with a separate okiyane roof and torii-waku framing its openings.
The gatehouse of the Takizawa Residence in Chikuma, Nagano, is a late-Edo thatched nagayamon: hipped at the south end, gabled at the north, following its use below.