Meiji

Behind the Uedaya shopfront in Ochiai-juku, this early-Meiji detached wing faces the garden, its raised parlor framing the view above a thick-walled miso cellar below.

Discover the Former Hayashi Clinic Main Building, a registered tangible cultural property built in 1904 in Gujo Hachiman, Gifu. This charming pseudo-Western wooden clinic features Ionic columns and Meiji-era medical exhibits, now preserved as the Gujo Hachiman Rakugeikan museum.

The Former Miyagawa Family Residence Main House is a thatched-roof mountain farmhouse rescued from Tokuyama Village before it was submerged by Japan's largest reservoir. Relocated to Gifu Prefectural Hundred-Year Park in Seki City and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2018, it preserves the architecture and atmosphere of a vanished village in western Mino.

Discover Senzairo, a historic ryokan established in 1764 near legendary Yoro Falls in Gifu Prefecture. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property, its Meiji-era main building offers exquisite sukiya-zukuri architecture, Hida beef cuisine, and rooms once graced by Japan's greatest cultural figures.

A brick aqueduct bridge in Mino, Gifu, carrying part of the 4.9-kilometre headrace of the Nagaragawa Power Plant, in operation since 1910. One of nine Registered Tangible Cultural Properties in the plant complex, the bridge shows late-Meiji Japan absorbing European hydroelectric engineering through local brick and granite craftsmanship.

Built in 1910, this intake on the middle Nagara River in Gujo City still feeds Japan's oldest hydroelectric installation on the river. Five segmental arches with granite voussoirs and an English-bond brick wall mark a key Meiji-era industrial heritage site.

Built in 1910, this brick gate (5.5 m wide, 2.4 m high) features granite-capped pillars and flared brick steps facing the Nagara River. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2000 and designated Modernization Industrial Heritage in 2007, it still serves as the working entrance to one of Japan's earliest hydroelectric plants.

A 1.2-meter Flemish-bond brick fence with five buttresses, raised in 1910 around Japan's first Nagaragawa River hydroelectric plant. A working piece of Meiji-era industrial heritage in Mino, Gifu, registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2000.

Tucked into the mountains of Mino City, Gifu Prefecture, the Nagaragawa Power Station No. 1 Settling Basin Waterproof Wall is a 1910 Registered Tangible Cultural Property still in active service. Its roughly pentagonal, 60-meter brick-and-cobblestone enclosure—punctuated by four elegant semicircular arched gates—regulates the water that powers Gifu's first hydroelectric station. Discover this quiet jewel of Meiji-era engineering heritage along the Nagara River.

Built in 1910, this short brick-and-stone arched culvert lies on the power station's conduit. A granite portal and iron gate flush trapped silt from the settling basin.

Built in 1910, the Hidani Aqueduct Bridge carries the Nagara River Power Station's conduit across a valley, its curving five-arch span holding an English-bond channel.

Finished in 1910 as Nagoya's first power plant, the Nagara River Power Station main building still runs today, its brick gable joining a rose window with onigawara tiles.

Built in 1910, the Yunohoradani Aqueduct Bridge is the longest of the station's brick water bridges. Granite springers carry six-course arches beside a mountain road.

Built around 1910, the Spillway Crossing Bridge is a small reinforced-concrete arch by the station's head tank, among the earliest concrete bridges in the Chubu region.

The Storehouse of the Hanada-Imai Residence in Mimayano, Gero, dates to about 1875. A two-storey plaster dozo, plain in form but carefully finished around its front door.

Discover the Morikawa Yoshiaki Family Residence, a registered tangible cultural property in Okute-juku, Mizunami City. This 1893 Meiji-era house served as both a merchant home and traveler's inn along the Nakasendo highway.

Discover the Yatsusankan Storehouse (Dozō), a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Hida Furukawa, Gifu Prefecture. This imposing Meiji-era earthen storehouse is part of a renowned ryotei ryokan with over 160 years of history, showcasing traditional Hida craftsmanship and architectural heritage.

The Yatsusankan Main Building in Hida-Furukawa, Gifu Prefecture, is a historic ryotei ryokan founded in the Ansei era. Rebuilt in 1905 by Hida master carpenters, this two-story wooden structure is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, celebrated for its hipped-gable roof, open atrium, and individually designed guest rooms.

Kurasaki Lighthouse, standing on the southern tip of Oshima Island off Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture, is Japan's oldest surviving unreinforced concrete lighthouse, completed in 1884. Designed by pioneering Japanese engineer Fujikura Kentatsu, it was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 2024. Discover its distinctive dodecagonal tower, dramatic clifftop setting, and the adventure of reaching this remote island beacon.

A 64-meter cut-stone wall marking Ioshi Shrine's sacred precinct in Obi, built in early Meiji using precision kenchi-zumi masonry of locally quarried Obi welded tuff stone.