Meiji

An 1894 well beside a house in Ishigaki, Okinawa, with a 1.2-metre limestone curb, a concrete pulley support and a 3-metre washing floor, extended in early Showa.

An 1894 stone toilet-and-pigsty behind a house in Ishigaki, Okinawa: limestone and awa-ishi blocks form 3 pens, each still holding its stone feeding trough.

A 1909 shizoku house moved to Ishigaki in 1984: two rows of rooms, a porch jutting past deep eaves and a dated ridge-beam inscription. Why registered; how to visit.

An 1887 house of 145 sq m at Ryukyu Mura in Onna, Okinawa, listed in 2007. Amahaji eaves on inumaki posts wrap all four sides of the largest house in the park.

An 1887 raised granary at Ryukyu Mura in Onna, Okinawa, listed in 2007. Four posts carry a floor 2.3 m up that overhangs them, a form close to Amami granaries.

An 1891 house of 91 sq m at Ryukyu Mura in Onna, Okinawa, listed in 2007. The plan of an ordinary early Meiji dwelling survives here without rearrangement.

A late Meiji house of 61 sq m at Ryukyu Mura in Onna, Okinawa, listed in 2007. The smallest house in the park, its partitions removed to open it on every side.

An 1877 house of 79 sq m at Ryukyu Mura in Onna, Okinawa, listed in 2007. The alcove in its first formal room was built to enshrine a sacred stone, not for display.

An 1897 stone pigsty-privy of 20 sq m at Ryukyu Mura in Onna, Okinawa, listed in 2007 as the only one of the park's seven judged not easy to recreate.

The Iwate Bank (Former Morioka Bank) Old Head Office Main Building is a magnificent Meiji-era banking hall completed in 1911 in central Morioka. Designed by Tatsuno Kingo, the architect of Tokyo Station, together with Kasai Manji, it is the only surviving Tatsuno work in Japan's Tohoku region. In 1994 it became the first active bank building in Japan to be designated a National Important Cultural Property. Now open to the public as the Bank of Iwate Red Brick Building, it showcases a stunning interior crafted with around 910,000 Iwate-made bricks and Aomori hiba wood, and features the iconic red brick and white granite Tatsuno style facade.

1912 European-style wooden hall and octagonal gatehouse of Japan's first college of agriculture and forestry in Morioka, now a museum with Kenji Miyazawa exhibits.

Standing in the heart of Morioka City, Iwate Prefecture, the Former Ninetieth Bank Head Office Main Building is a two-story brick bank building completed in 1910 (Meiji 43), designed by young Morioka-born architect Tsutomu Yokohama. With its dignified Romanesque Revival exterior and a strikingly modern interior influenced by the Vienna Secession movement, the building is recognized as an early forerunner of Taisho-era Expressionist architecture and was designated an Important Cultural Property of Japan in 2004. Today it is open free of charge as the Morioka Takuboku & Kenji Museum of Youth, where visitors can explore the youthful years of two of Japan's most beloved writers, Takuboku Ishikawa and Kenji Miyazawa.

Twenty-one farm buildings at the foot of Mount Iwate, designated an Important Cultural Property in 2017 and mostly still in use. Nine can be seen up close.

Located in Sumita Town, Iwate Prefecture, the Kuriki Iron Works Ruins preserve the remains of a private ironworks that operated from 1881 to 1920. Designated a National Historic Site in 2021, it is the only surviving example in Japan of a complete small-to-medium scale blast furnace ironworks compound from the Meiji and Taisho periods, holding exceptional industrial archaeological value. Two blast furnace bases, office ruins, water channels, and casting factory remains lie quietly in the Tane-ga-hara highlands beloved by author Miyazawa Kenji.

Discover the Former Nambu Clan Villa Garden in Morioka, Iwate—a tranquil pond stroll garden tracing its roots to a 17th-century medicinal herb garden, beautifully preserved within a Meiji-era estate.

Nanshōsō Garden in Shimizu-chō, Morioka, is a pond-stroll garden built in 1885 as the private estate of the industrialist Segawa Yasugorō. Ingeniously incorporating the natural slope of the Kitakami River terrace, the garden is designed for two parallel modes of appreciation — seated viewing from the elevated Nanshō-no-Ma room of the main house, and a winding stroll around the two interconnected ponds. Registered as a National Monument in 2015, this lovingly preserved Meiji-era retreat continues to enchant visitors with its seasonal beauty, including the famous reflection of crimson maples on its polished wooden floors in autumn.

Town house of 1888 in Tono, Iwate, with rooms either side of a central passage, an open-roofed living room and upstairs lattice. A typical Tono house, now an inn.

The Former Azumaya Sake Brewery Store and Main House in Miyako is a late Meiji townhouse whose street front of lattice and one boarded bay was registered in 2019.

An early Meiji board-walled storehouse beside the front gate in Mizusawa, 3 bays by 2, whose gabled roof has its ridge pushed to the west, giving unequal slopes.

An early Meiji house in Mizusawa pairing a hipped entrance wing with a hip-and-gable reception wing, with a sukiya-style upstairs room and paintings by Sato Koun.