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 Naito family main house in Ikedacho, Nara, built in the early Meiji era, is a gabled farmhouse with six rooms, a stepped roof over the doma and sturdy timber.
The Naito family courtyard north wall in Ikedacho, Nara, built around 1910, stands on a canal embankment, boarded outside and with exposed posts facing the garden.
The Naito family nagayamon gate in Ikedacho, Nara, built in the early Meiji era, has its lintel plastered over and shows a closed, almost windowless front.
The main house of the Hamoto family in Yamatokoriyama, Nara, an early Meiji merchant house on the old road, has fine lattices, a fold-down bench and mushiko windows.
The Fujioka Family Residence Rice Storehouse in Gojo, Nara, is an 1892 plastered store facing the Main House across the road, registered in 2006 for its landscape.
The Fujioka Family Residence New Reception Wing in Gojo, Nara, built in 1912, has 15- and 10-mat rooms with formal alcoves and a projecting entrance for guests.
The Fujioka Family Residence Yakuimon Gate in Gojo, Nara, is a late Meiji single-bay gate of solid zelkova, its tie beams run forward as brackets to carry the roof.
The Fujioka Family Residence Connecting Corridor in Gojo, Nara, built in 1896, links the Main House to the rear wings and holds a small upstairs study.
A c.1910 single-storey earthen rice storehouse at the front of the Matsuura estate in Oji, Nara, with a karahafu-hooded vent on its south wall. Registered in 2010.
A c.1910 house in Oji, Nara, built by railway tunnel contractor Matsuura Otokichi, with a stepped roof and a zashiki with a tsukeshoin desk. Registered in 2010.
A small c.1910 two-storey earthen storehouse at the back of the Matsuura estate in Oji, Nara, the only one of its six buildings roofed in hongawara tiles.
A c.1910 single-storey wing behind the main house of the Matsuura estate in Oji, Nara, with plastered walls, tall boarding on its north side and a kuramae room.
A c.1910 gate range in Oji, Nara, running 19 m along the front of the Matsuura estate, with the front gate at its south end and a well and washing place inside.
The one Meiji-period building of the Matsumoto estate in Kodera, Nara: a two-storey clay storehouse forming the south edge of the plot, registered in 2017.
An 1891 valuables store and earthen wall at a Kashihara vinegar brewery in Nara, plastered to the eaves under a separate roof and older than the brewery buildings.
A mid-Meiji vinegar hall at a Kashihara brewery in Nara, where the Onishi family's vinegar began and where cedar vats 2.5 metres across still hold maturing vinegar.
A late Meiji brewery store in Kashihara, Nara, once the mash-pressing room of a vinegar maker, linking the North and South Storehouses in one continuous interior.
A National Treasure: a Southern Song edition of Ouyang Xiu's works, edited by Zhou Bida, once in the medieval Kanazawa Bunko library and nearly complete at Tenri.
Discover the Song Edition of Liu Mengde's Collected Works, a National Treasure held at Tenri University Library in Nara. Printed in 12th-century China, brought to Japan by Zen master Eisai, and once admired by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, this rare printed book offers a remarkable glimpse into the literary exchange between Tang China and medieval Japan.
The 1883 main hall of Ariso Sho Hachimangu Shrine in Takaoka: a hip-and-gable roof with chidori-hafu front and back, carved brackets, and chigi on the copper ridge.