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.
The storehouse of the Yonehara family in Chizu, Tottori, built in the mid-Meiji years, shows fine namako walls and the crest of the family who owned the plot before.
Wakasa Railway Iwabuchi River Bridge crosses a Hatto tributary at an angle on two cut-down Meiji girders moved here in 1930, with J-shaped and straight stiffeners.
Wakasa Railway Hosomi River Bridge reuses wrought-iron girders of Japan's first standard design, drawn up by British engineers and cut down for this 1930 crossing.
Izumo Hinomisaki Lighthouse rises 43.65 metres, Japan's tallest stone tower. Built in 1903, its double wall pairs cut stone with brick. Important Cultural Property, 2022.
The Meiji tea room of the Ishibashi Residence in Izumo, Shimane, is a thirteen-square-metre three-mat space with a round bamboo-lattice window and a level alcove.
The late-Meiji reception wing of the Ishibashi Residence in Izumo, Shimane, rises two storeys over coursed stone, white plaster above boarding, holding the street.
The 1896 Kanayago shrine of the Itohara house, barely 0.9 square metres, enshrining the deity of ironmaking revered by tatara smelters. Its smallest registered building.
The late-Meiji enclosure wall of the Itohara house, a timber wall with tiled coping about 36 metres long, tying the ceremonial gate and stone pillars into one frontage.
The late-Meiji reception rooms of the Itohara house, remodelled in 1936, where the lord of Matsue was received. The family kept tea utensils of the tea-master lord Fumai.
The 1876 south storehouse of the Itohara house, earliest dated of its buildings. A two-storey white-plastered dozo of about 193 square metres, largest of its stores.
The late-Meiji stone gate pillars of the Itohara house, framing an opening about 3.7 metres wide, the everyday counterpart to its timber ceremonial gate.
Standing on the grounds of Shimane Prefectural Taisha High School near Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine, Inasa Kaikan is the former 1902 auditorium of Shimane Prefectural Third Middle School. A nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it showcases pseudo-Western Meiji school architecture with clapboard siding, sash windows, and a distinctive octagonal entrance porch preserved from the original main building.
Okuno Shogo Family Residence Rear Nagaya, Mori, Yasugi: a 1911 single-story back building with an open passage, a room, a miso store and a work floor in one row.
Okuno Shogo Family Residence Main House, Mori, Yasugi: a 1911 two-story town house on the old road with a through-passage, six rooms, lattice bays and many openings.
Okuno Shogo Family Residence Storehouse, Mori, Yasugi: a 1911 two-story storehouse on stone footings with a plaster band, a round ridge-end and a floating roof.
Okuno Motoke Residence Main House, Mori, Yasugi: an 1872 town house on the old road, single-story with a partial upper floor yet tall enough to pass for two stories.
A mid-Meiji townhouse 11 meters wide on Tsuwano's Honmachi-dori, registered in 2010 for a merchant facade of slatted windows and firewalls. The shop opens daily.
The former post office of Gotsu, Shimane, a tiny mid-Meiji timber building of white plaster with blue frames and a balcony, brightens the old river-port streetscape.
Zaima Family Residence Upper Storehouse in Tsuwano is a late Meiji storehouse of 35 m² whose south wall is finished in washed mortar, registered in 2010.
Zaima Family Residence Lower Storehouse in Tsuwano is a late Meiji storehouse, 9.6 m long, with a rice room and a hiai pickle room beside it, registered in 2010.