Meiji

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.

An 1898 stone telephone exchange from Sapporo, rebuilt at its original size at Meiji Mura in Inuyama, an Important Cultural Property since 1968, with a phone exhibit.

Designed by French engineer Verny and lit in 1870 on a battery island in Tokyo Bay, this circular tower at Meiji Mura is Japan's oldest surviving Western lighthouse.

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.

Built in 1911 as a merchant family's villa in Handa, Aichi, this half-timbered house attributed to Suzuki Teiji became an Important Cultural Property in 1976.

Built on Kyoto's Kawaramachi in 1907 and rebuilt at Meiji Mura in 1964, this Anglican church pairs a brick ground floor with a timber hall under bamboo ceilings.

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.

Built of stone around 1903, this is Aichi's oldest school gate, and one of thirteen working prefectural school gates registered together in 2017, a first for Japan.

Built in 1908 as the Imperial Army's 15th Division headquarters at Toyohashi, this plain wooden hall is now Aichi University Memorial Hall, open free on weekdays.

Oldest of five registered buildings at this Toyohashi shrine, raised in 1885: a kagura stage with a boat-bottom ceiling, a painted pine backdrop and a Noh side door.

Isegami Tunnel at Isegami Pass in Toyota, Aichi is a 308-metre granite road tunnel of 1897 with a rusticated stone portal. Registered in 2000, free to walk through.

Izutsuro is an 1868 timber inn at Fukue in Tahara, Aichi, registered in 2022. Three wings ring a courtyard, and a 52-mat banquet hall occupies the upper floor.

A tea house of 1868 in the corner of a private garden in Tsushima, Aichi. Moved from Yatomi in 1948 onto a built-up mound. Four-and-a-half mats, 24 square metres.

At the rear of the deep Inoue lot, beyond the garden, stands this small early-Meiji storehouse of about 31 square meters, its walls clad in boarding. Listed 2004.

On Honmachi-dori in Inuyama's castle town, this early-Meiji townhouse now houses a pickle shop and tearoom, so visitors can step right inside. Listed 2004.

Built in 1909, the chūden of Ushida Hachiman Shrine in Chiryu, Aichi, is a rare middle hall between the worship and covering halls, carved with dragons and cranes.

Built in 1882, the haiden of Ushida Hachiman Shrine in Chiryu, Aichi, stands at the front of the central halls, richly carved, its roof re-tiled in 2024 to 2025.