Meiji

The Koji-gura in Masuda is an early-Meiji earthen storehouse, still used as Hinomaru Jozo's koji room for culturing rice. Its interior is closed to visitors.

The Chuo-gura is the largest building at Hinomaru Jozo in Masuda, an early-Meiji earthen storehouse about 24 metres long, still used for storage. It is closed.

The Hinomaru Jozo shop faces the old highway in Masuda, its gable end showing tiered beams in the local townhouse style. A sales counter runs on site.

The Higashi-mae-gura in Masuda is the older half of a paired storehouse at Hinomaru Jozo, its stacked-beam roof keeping the look of early-Meiji work. It is closed.

The Bunko-gura at Hinomaru Jozo in Masuda is a 1908 earthen storehouse in black plaster, its interior lined with lacquered cypress columns. It alone is open to visitors.

The Minami-gura is the smallest registered building at Hinomaru Jozo in Masuda, an early-Meiji storehouse about 11 metres long, still used to store rice. It is closed.

The Yamanaka Kichisuke Shoten Zashiki-gura in Masuda, Yokote City, Akita Prefecture, is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1886. Featuring a striking contrast of black and white plaster walls and finely spaced alternating chestnut and cedar columns, this two-story earthen parlor storehouse exemplifies the distinctive architectural tradition of the Masuda merchant district, a nationally designated preservation area for traditional buildings.

Igantei is a Meiji-era guest hall built in 1912 by the prominent Hosaka landowner family in Tonome, Joetsu City, Niigata Prefecture. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2024, it features a striking copper-plated karahafu entrance and exquisite kumiko lattice windows showcasing the finest craftsmanship of the period.

Ikinariya's Kyuban-no-ma, an 1877 room of about 29 square meters, rests on a garden hill at the rear and tall posts at the front, projecting stage-like over the garden.

Ikinariya's Kotobuki-no-ma and Niban-no-ma, an 1877 hall and its largest registered room, sits at the back of the grounds, opening onto the pond garden for banquets.

Ikinariya's Sanban-no-ma, a compact 1877 room of about 40 square meters, pairs a kakekomi ceiling following the roof slope with a boat-bottom funazoko ceiling.

A small wooden warehouse from 1910 stands at Nihongi Station, built a year before it opened. It keeps a king-post truss roof and high windows. Registered 2019.

A brick lamp shed from 1910 stands at Nihongi, a 9.9-square-meter oil store for lamp fuel with a cornice and gable pediments. Locals call it the red-brick shed.

Enjin Sonsha, a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property on the grounds of the Morohashi Tetsuji Memorial Museum in Sanjo City, Niigata, is the scholar's study where Dr. Morohashi Tetsuji compiled the Dai Kanwa Jiten — the world's largest Chinese-Japanese dictionary. Discover the history, architectural features, highlights, and access information for this Meiji-era retreat named after a poem by Tao Yuanming.

Discover ryugon in Minamiuonuma, Niigata — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property farmhouse transformed into a luxury hot spring inn. Explore its chumon-zukuri architecture, samurai heritage, and snow country culture.

The Kaichi Shrine Haiden, located within the grounds of Inari Shrine in Niigata City's Kita Ward, is a worship hall dedicated to Endō Shichirōzaemon Munetoshi, the village headman who secured permission from the Tokugawa Shogunate to open the Kuzutsuka Market in 1761. Built in 1871, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property features a distinctive torii-gate-style front canopy and segai-zukuri eaves with closely spaced rafters—rare elements in shrine architecture that reflect regional building traditions.

Shaped natural stones stacked six courses and capped with coping form the wall framing the Kina saffron sake compound and giving Nagaoka's Settaya a street-side face.

Standing alone at the north of the grounds, this storehouse is the oldest survivor from when brewing began here, its gable shaped into the character for good fortune.

Behind a heavy gabled porch and its old saffron-sake signboard, the 469-square-metre timber main house in Nagaoka opens for guided visits on weekends and holidays.

A registered Meiji house in Sekiya, Niigata, raised after the Boshin War burned its predecessor in 1868. Exposed gable framing, bold beams, shoin rooms. Not open.