Meiji

Standing on the windswept northernmost cliff of the Tango Peninsula in Kyoto Prefecture, Kyōgamisaki Lighthouse is a working Meiji-era stone tower first lit on December 25, 1898. It is one of only five "first-order" lighthouses in Japan, and its original French-made Fresnel lens and pioneering mercury-bath rotation mechanism are still in operation today. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 2022, it stands amid the columnar basalt cliffs of the San'in Kaigan UNESCO Global Geopark and offers visitors one of the most dramatic coastal landscapes in western Japan.

The Kyoto Orthodox Cathedral of the Annunciation, a timber church of 1903 with a cupola, a belfry and a Russian iconostasis, is the oldest of its kind in Japan.

Built in 1904 near the Kyoto Imperial Palace, this brick Renaissance hall still holds government offices, reputedly Japan's oldest such building in active use.

Near Kyoto's Nanzen-ji, this Meiji villa pairs a famed Ueji garden, fed by the Lake Biwa Canal, with a sukiya house named an Important Cultural Property in 2024.

Four brick structures of 1895 at the Kyoto National Museum, designed by Katayama Tokuma and listed in 1969. The main hall is closed, but the gate and walls remain.

The former Bank of Japan Kyoto Branch on Sanjo-dori, a brick building of 1906 by Tatsuno Kingo and Nagano Uheiji, is now the annex of the Museum of Kyoto.

The Former Butokuden in Kyoto, a vast timber martial arts hall of 1899 that the city calls the oldest in Japan, is still used as part of the Kyoto City Budo Center.

A French priest's 1896 design, built by Miyazu carpenters: a wooden church with a Romanesque vault over a tatami floor. An Important Cultural Property since 2024.

A stone myojin torii marking the approach to Amino Shrine, raised in 1881 and 5.5 metres tall. Toppled in the 1927 quake, it was rebuilt to its original form in 1929.

An 1892 thatched gate at Anrakuji in Kyoto's Shishigatani, with octagonal posts and pole rafters fanned beneath a hipped roof. The temple opens in spring and autumn.

Izumo Daijingu's ritual implement storehouse in Kameoka, Kyoto: an 1885 two-storey clay store with white plaster, a namako tile band and carved brackets.

Izumo Daijingu's offering preparation hall in Kameoka, Kyoto: a 1908 building with a tatami room for priests and a board-floored kitchen with its own well.

Izumo Daijingu's notice board in Kameoka, Kyoto: an 1873 roofed frame for posted rules, 0.9 meters wide, with a stepped copper roof, standing beside the stone torii.

Izumo Daijingu's music pavilion in Kameoka, Kyoto: built in 1881 as the first offering hall and moved to a raised stone terrace east of the middle gate in 1908.

Izumo Daijingu's temizuya in Kameoka, Kyoto: an 1885 purification pavilion with four inward-leaning posts, a gently swelling gable roof and a shaped west beam.

Izumo Daijingu's worship hall in Kameoka, Kyoto: an open-sided 1878 hall under a cypress-bark roof, with round pillars, a coffered ceiling and double-tier rafters.

Completed in 1890 for the Inaba merchant family in Kumihama, Kyotango, this main house pairs a traditional exterior with a central-corridor plan and a tall doma.

The southern of two storehouses linked by corridor to the Inaba main house in Kumihama, Kyotango: a mid-Meiji two-storey earthen store with a separate roof.

The Meiji-era silk thread store of a Miyazu merchant family, largest on the plot, with a broad gable and paired windows. Registered in 2002 as a model of design.

A Meiji rice storehouse on a Miyazu street, walled in namako tile in a diamond lattice and a square grid, its eave aligned with the main house. Registered 2002.