Meiji

The Iotoshi Shrine Kagura Hall and Worship Hall in Nichinan, Miyazaki, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1876 on the former site of the Itō clan's mortuary temple. Featuring refined Meiji-era wooden architecture and a backdrop of triple stone bridges in the registered Hōonji garden, it is a hidden gem on the edge of historic Obi castle town.

Built in 1876 on the former site of Hōon-ji Temple, the Itō clan's family temple, Iose Shrine Main Hall in Nichinan City, Miyazaki, is a three-bay nagare-zukuri sanctuary registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2010. With its restrained Meiji-era architecture, the rare three-tiered stone bridges of the old temple garden, and the Itō family graves at the rear, this quiet shrine on the edge of the Obi castle town offers a layered window into samurai-era and modern Japanese history.

Discover Kurokita Power Station in Miyazaki, the oldest operating hydroelectric plant in Kyushu. Built in 1907 with German-made machinery, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property features elegant Meiji-era stone architecture and still generates electricity today.

The No. 1 Storehouse anchors Furusawa Brewery, founded in Miyazaki in 1892. Within its thick earthen walls, shochu mash ferments in ceramic jars kept cool without burial.

At the heart of Furusawa Brewery sits the kōji room, its board walls packed with rice husks. Since 1892, hand-made kōji has begun each batch of shochu here.

Furusawa Brewery's small late-Meiji No. 2 Storehouse pairs with the larger No. 1 hall on the north edge of the yard, fermenting Yaezakura shochu behind thick clay walls.

On Hososhima's commercial wharf in Miyazaki, a six-square-metre brick hut built in 1893 by the Imperial Japanese Army's Land Survey Department still records Pacific tides — the oldest working tide gauge in Japan, designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2018.

Miyazaki Shrine's Stone Fence, built in 1907, runs some 235 meters of cast artificial stone around the sanctuary to the Funatsuka tumulus, an early concrete boundary.

Miyazaki Shrine's Goryoya, built in 1907, stands east of the heiden and, with its twin hall to the west, forms the symmetrical facade Ito Chuta designed here.

Miyazaki Shrine's Shinsenjo, built in 1907, stands west of the heiden and holds the shrine's sacred food offerings. It is registered as a fine example of its type.

Miyazaki Shrine's Shinden, built in 1907, faces south before the Funatsuka burial mound. Its plain, Ise-influenced form earned a rare listing as a model of design.

Discover the Shoin and Kuri of Daigakusan Kōfuku-ji, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Tome City, Miyagi. This Meiji-era Tendai Buddhist temple features a unique blend of traditional Japanese architecture with pioneering colored glass accents, set atop a scenic hilltop alongside the vibrant Kannon-dō and the remarkable Western-style Rokkaku-dō.

Discover the Kato Family Residence in Tome City, Miyagi Prefecture—a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in the early Meiji era. Learn about its architectural heritage, rural farmhouse charm, and the historic Toyoma castle town known as "Miyagi's Meiji Village."

The Former Second Higher School Main Gate on Tohoku University's Katahira Campus in Sendai is an ornamental brick gate designed in 1889 by Ministry of Education architects Yamaguchi Hanroku and Kuru Masamichi. Having survived multiple relocations and earthquake damage, the gate was lovingly restored by alumni to its original location and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2021.

The Meiji residence of a sake brewery founded in 1790, this 175 m² timber building anchors the Kamuro merchant complex by Furukawa's poetic Odae bridge in Miyagi.

A Meiji-era two-story dozō on the old Ōshū Kaidō in Furukawa, counter house of the Hashihei sake brewery, with white plaster walls and a black cornice band.

A Meiji-era timber shopfront in Furukawa, once the public face of the Hashihei sake brewery (founded 1790). Registered in 2021, it now anchors the Kamuro complex.

Kinkasan Lighthouse stands on the southeastern cliffs of Kinkasan, a sacred island off the Oshika Peninsula in Miyagi Prefecture. Designed by Richard Henry Brunton, the 'Father of Japanese Lighthouses,' and first lit in 1876, it is the oldest stone lighthouse in the Tohoku region. Its granite tower has survived over 140 years virtually unchanged, earning designation as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, one of Japan's 50 Notable Lighthouses, and an A-rank Preservation Lighthouse. Historically, it served as the first sight of Japan for ships crossing the Pacific on the North America route.

Discover Sankyozawa Power Station in Sendai, Japan's earliest recorded hydroelectric plant. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property has been generating electricity since the Meiji era. Visit the adjacent museum, see a working 100-year-old generator, and explore the birthplace of hydropower in Japan.

Discover Sumaru Yashiki Misegura, a Meiji-period earthen storehouse in Shiroishi, Miyagi Prefecture. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property preserves the merchant heritage of a prosperous castle town. Free admission.