Meiji

A Southern Song scroll attributed to Ma Yuan, this National Treasure shows a lone traveler hurrying under a folded umbrella as wind and rain cross towering peaks.

A bokuseki scroll at the Tokyo National Museum: a verse brushed by the Southern Song Zen monk Beijian Jujian in a Suzhou pavilion in 1229, an early tea scroll.

The Gotoh Museum in Setagaya, Tokyo, preserves the National Treasure 'Six Patriarch Shouldering a Pole,' a thirteenth-century Southern Song ink painting bearing the seal of the painter Chokuō. Rendered in the delicate mōryōga style with washes of pale ink and selective accents of dark ink, the scroll depicts Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, at the life-changing moment he hears the Diamond Sutra. An inscription by Chan master Enkei Kōmon dates the work with unusual precision. Discover the history, artistic value, and visiting information for this masterpiece.

Held by the Nezu Museum in Tokyo's Minami-Aoyama district, Fishing Village at Sunset (attributed to Muqi) is a National Treasure and one of the supreme achievements of Southern Song ink painting. A scene from the famous Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, it bears the seal of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and is exhibited only rarely, every few years.

Nestled along the Otanigawa in Mima City, Tokushima, this curving stone sabo dam was built in the Meiji era under the guidance of Dutch engineer Johannis de Rijke. It is the only surviving Meiji-era erosion-control dam in Shikoku and the largest of its kind associated with de Rijke in Japan. Its graceful three-tiered stonework now anchors De Rijke Park, where Dutch-style windmills and 15,000 spring tulips honor an engineer whose ideas still hold back the sediment of the Sanuki Mountains today.

The Sanmon gate of Ganshoji Temple in Mima City, Tokushima Prefecture, is a Meiji-era eight-legged gate registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2009 for its uniquely creative design, featuring a distinctive flower-head arch opening and elaborate plant motifs. Standing as the entrance to one of Shikoku's oldest temples, it invites visitors to explore a hidden cultural treasure alongside the oldest dry landscape garden in Shikoku and the historic temple district of Mima.

The Former Kawaguchi Post Office Building and Main House in Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture, is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1905. This charming wooden structure uniquely combines Western and Japanese architectural styles, featuring painted clapboard siding and traditional lattice windows along the Yoshino River.

The Shimao Family Residence Shop and Main House in Tsuji, Ikawa-cho, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture, is a nationally registered tangible cultural property that preserves the legacy of this riverside town's prosperity from the tobacco trade of the late Edo and Meiji periods. Discover the architectural charm of this historic merchant house and explore the surrounding attractions of the Iya Valley region.

Discover the Shimao Family Residence Annex (Shimao-ke Jutaku Hanare) in Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture — a registered tangible cultural property showcasing traditional Japanese residential architecture amid the scenic mountains of the Iya Valley region.

The Nakawa Shoten Shikomi-gura in Ikeda, Miyoshi City, Tokushima Prefecture, is a Meiji-era fermentation storehouse registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Part of a brewery founded in 1802, this wooden structure features a distinctive log-frame roof creating a vast interior space. Home to the award-winning sake brand Imakomachi, the site offers brewery tours and serves as a gateway to Shikoku's scenic Iya Valley and Oboke Gorge.

A rare two-story wooden lantern above Tokushima's Yoshino River, built 1884. It packs full temple-hall carpentry — fan rafters, cusped windows, kara-hafu gable — into a 15-square-meter structure registered nationally in 2011.

Built in 1896 at the top of Mount Hōju in western Tokushima, Hashikuraji's Temizuya stands at the head of the 278-step Heart Sutra staircase, directly in front of the Honden. Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in October 2011.

Deep in the mountains of Tokushima Prefecture stands Manpukuji, a Kōyasan Shingon temple founded in 1186. Within its quiet precinct sits a small Chinjudō, a guardian-deity hall enshrining the kami who protects the temple. Registered in 2005 as a National Tangible Cultural Property alongside the Main Hall, bell tower, and storehouse, this modest structure preserves the living memory of shinbutsu-shūgō — Japan's centuries-old fusion of Buddhist and Shinto worship — in a rustic, regionally rooted architectural setting.

The Former Aoki Family Nasu Villa in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, is a German-style Western residence built by Meiji-era Foreign Minister Aoki Shūzō and designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Designed by Matsugasaki Tsumunaga — whose twelve years of architectural study in Germany produced this sole surviving work in Japan — the villa features distinctive fish-scale slate walls and authentic German timber-frame construction. It stands as a rare testament to the pioneering development of the Nasunogahara plain and the lives of the Meiji statesmen who shaped modern Japan.

Furukawa Bridge, spanning the Matsuki River in Ashio, Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, is a steel truss bridge completed in 1890 using components manufactured by Germany's Harkort Company. Designated as a nationally Important Cultural Property, it is the oldest surviving Harkort-made bridge in Japan remaining in its original location, embodying the rapid modernization of the Ashio Copper Mine and Japan's bridge engineering history.

An Important Cultural Property in Nasu, Tochigi: home of the Mimori family of village headmen, with a thatched 1733 main house and a long front gatehouse.

Created in late Meiji-era Ashikaga, the Shindo Family Garden uses a dramatic five-meter elevation difference to produce a vertical garden composition virtually without parallel in Japan. A three-meter waterfall, an S-shaped pond, and a two-story detached residence form a single integrated landscape designated a National Registered Monument (Place of Scenic Beauty). Normally a private residence, it occasionally opens during Ashikaga's autumn cultural heritage events.

Built in 1908 with a donation from the British Miners' Mission, Ashio Christian Church is the only surviving early church in what was once Japan's leading copper-mining town. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2014, this small wooden chapel preserves the spiritual life of the miners who powered Japan's industrial rise.

Built around 1907, the back gate of the Iizuka new residence is timber with a pantile gabled roof. Though at the rear, it is large and finely built.

Built of granite around 1907, the Iizuka new residence front gate has tile-roofed board fences on stone bases. Its tall single-stone posts signal the family's rank.