Meiji
明治Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
At Meiji Mura near Inuyama stands a sentry box from the gate of Tokyo's Akasaka Palace, a National Treasure. Built in 1908, it is a Registered Cultural Property.
Built around 1887 in Kobe, now at Meiji-mura, this registered property pairs a stone-look Western front with a Japanese gabled porch and still serves beef hotpot.
Built in 1909 on the Gakushūin grounds in Tokyo and rebuilt at Meiji Mura in 1964, this registered property links a private Japanese wing to a Western office wing.
Built in 1907, Kanazawa Prison ranged five cell blocks around an octagonal guardhouse so a warder watched every wing. A timber wing survives at Museum Meiji-mura.
Built in 1907 for Kanazawa Prison and rebuilt at Museum Meiji Mura in 1977, this red-brick gate by Yamashita Keijiro survives from the Five Great Meiji Prisons.
An octagonal guardhouse from Kanazawa Prison, one of Meiji's Five Great Prisons. Five cell wings once radiated from this watch point, now preserved at Meiji Mura.
An 1895 earthen storehouse that once brewed sake in Kariya, now at Meiji-mura. Note its drop-away fire boards, torii-shaped roof frame, and registered status.
Built in 1912 to face Kyoto's Nishi Hongan-ji, this wooden police box mimics Western brick in tile. Now at Museum Meiji-mura, its cut corner rewards a close look.
A Kyoto sake dealer's townhouse of 1870, re-erected at Museum Meiji-Mura. Behind its lattice front an open workshop holds a brick steaming furnace and a koji cellar.
A small merchant house built around 1868 at Yaizu, where Lafcadio Hearn rented the upper floor each summer. Re-erected at Museum Meiji-Mura and listed in 2004.
One of the 6 bronze lamp standards from the parapet posts of the Imperial Palace stone bridge in Tokyo, now at Museum Meiji-Mura with its ornament at eye level.
Meiji Village Koda Rohan Residence Kagyuan, listed in 2003, is the Tokyo home the novelist rented for about 10 years. See its ten-mat study, deep eaves and darkroom.
Meiji Village Ministry of Industry Shinagawa Glass Factory, listed in 2004, came from a state glassworks in Tokyo. Note the English bond brick and roof monitor.
Meiji Village Kobe Yamate Western Residence Main House, listed in 2003, came from the Yamate slopes of Kobe. Verandas wrap both floors on grooved posts.
A two-storey annex from a Kobe foreign residence, rebuilt at Meiji Mura in 1969. It has no internal stair: the room upstairs is reached only from the main house.
A cast-iron light tower first lit in 1904 on an island in Hiroshima Bay, rebuilt at Meiji Mura in 1976. Four stacked cylinders, raised in three months as war began.
A single-storey government building of 1888 from the Tokyo Imperial Palace precinct, rebuilt at Meiji Mura in 1977. White plaster and an arcade of round arches.
Framed in Seattle around 1907 from mass produced lumber, this early platform framed house later served Japanese immigrants as a church. Moved to Meiji Mura 1984.
Takeda Goichi designed this 1911 Nishinomiya villa, European below and Japanese above, with a woven ceiling over its hall. Rebuilt at Meiji Mura, registered in 2008.
Built 1897-1906 on the Nakasendo in Nagano, Meiji Village Shimizu Clinic sets segmental arches and scored plaster over a Kiso storehouse frame. Registered 2003.