Meiji

Discover the Akagi Family Residence, one of Japan's best-preserved Meiji-era farmhouse complexes with 16 registered cultural properties. Explore traditional architecture, silkworm-rearing rooms, and authentic rural heritage near Kinosaki Onsen in Hyogo Prefecture.

Discover the Iwasake Residence Storehouse, a nationally registered cultural property in Akashi City. This beautifully preserved 1904 Meiji-era farmhouse features distinctive black and white stucco walls amidst modern urbanization.

Discover the Persian Manuscript in Japan, a remarkable 13th-century document brought from Song-dynasty Quanzhou by the monk Keisei. This Important Cultural Property contains Persian poetry and reveals the vibrant maritime Silk Road connections between medieval Japan, China, and Persia.

An Important Cultural Property of Japan held privately in Kyoto Prefecture. This hanging scroll is a Zen ink-trace (bokuseki) brushed in 1268 by the Southern Song Chan master Wu'er Kexuan (also known as Shiqiao Kexuan), giving a verse-poem to his disciple Ming, who served as the temple's head of guests. As a precisely dated late-Southern-Song original, it is a primary document of Sino-Japanese Zen exchange and an exemplar of the calligraphy that came to be revered as the highest form of hanging scroll in the Japanese tea ceremony.

A Southern Song-period silk painting of a quail bearing the "Zakkashitsu-in" connoisseurship seal of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori, this Important Cultural Property descends from the celebrated Higashiyama lineage of Chinese paintings cherished by the Ashikaga shogunal house, and is privately preserved in Tokyo as a quiet witness to Japan's medieval engagement with classical Chinese art.

Discover the Pigeon on a Peach Branch (Momohato-zu), a Japanese National Treasure attributed to Emperor Huizong of the Northern Song Dynasty. This exquisite silk painting from 1107 showcases the boneless (mokkotsu) technique, Slender Gold calligraphy, and a provenance tracing back to Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu.

Held by the Diplomatic Archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Tsushin Zenran (320 volumes) and Zoku Tsushin Zenran (1,784 volumes) form Japan's first systematic compilation of diplomatic records. Covering the turbulent decade from 1859 to 1868, these approximately 2,000 volumes contain primary documents on Perry's arrival, the Namamugi Incident, and other pivotal Bakumatsu events. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 2016, related materials can be viewed free of charge at the Exhibition Room on the 5th floor of Mori JP Tower in Azabudai Hills, Tokyo.

Self-taught photographer Yokoyama Matsusaburo learned his craft to portray his mother. These 83 objects, kept by one Hakodate family, survive from early Meiji Japan.

Calligraphy by the Southern Song Chan master Xutang Zhiyu on wax-coated paper, an Important Cultural Property prized as a tea-room scroll, privately held in Tokyo.

Discover the Former Uchida Family Residence, a designated Important Cultural Property in Minamichita, Aichi. This grand 1869 estate of a Bishu Kaisen ship owner preserves nine original buildings, Yakusugi cedar ceilings, and maritime heritage from Japan's coastal trading era.

The Oguri Residence in Handa, Aichi, a brewing dynasty's Meiji home, was named an Important Cultural Property in 2022 for its grand doma beamwork and tea rooms.

Discover the Former Ise Post Office (Uji-Yamada Post Office), a designated Important Cultural Property and the only surviving wooden post office from Japan's Meiji era. Now preserved at Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi, this 1909 half-timbered masterpiece features a striking V-shaped plan, conical dome, and a still-functioning postal service.

Discover the Former Gofukuza Theater, an Important Cultural Property at Museum Meiji-Mura in Inuyama, Aichi. This Meiji-era kabuki playhouse features a revolving stage, naraku underpass, and traditional Edo-period theater architecture.

Discover the Former Saigo Tsugumichi Residence, an Important Cultural Property at Museum Meiji-mura in Aichi. This French-designed Western mansion built in the 1880s blends European elegance with Japanese earthquake-resistant techniques, offering a rare glimpse into Meiji-era elite diplomacy and lifestyle.

Completed in 1898 in central Sapporo, the Former Sapporo Telephone Exchange is a two-story stone building that housed Hokkaido's first telephone exchange operations. Built with locally quarried Sapporo soft stone in an elegant Renaissance-inspired style, it is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Now preserved at Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture, it features an interactive exhibition on the history of telephone communication in Japan.

A lighthouse keeper's quarters of 1873, built under British engineer R. H. Brunton beside the Sugashima Lighthouse in Mie. The brick house now stands at Meiji Mura.

Built in 1902 to reconnect the Kiso and Nagara rivers after Meiji works divided them, this brick lock still raises and lowers boats and is among Japan's earliest.

A rare wooden three-storey townhouse, the former Tomatsu House traces a Nagoya family's shift from oil to banking; now at Meiji-mura, its stern face hides tea rooms.

Hasshokan, a Nagoya ryotei grown from an 1880s timber merchant's villa, had nine buildings designated in 2020, centered on Horiguchi Sutemi's imperial Miyuki-no-ma.

Step inside Japan's only surviving early-Meiji prefectural office, a 54-meter pseudo-Western masterpiece of 1879 that hosted Emperor Meiji and now stands relocated at Meiji Mura in Inuyama, Aichi.