Meiji

Discover the Nanafushigido Main House, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property originally built in 1881 in Tonami, Toyama. This grand Azumadachi-style farmhouse showcases rare Meiji-era craftsmanship and folk tales of Rennyo Shonin through Echizen washi and bamboo dolls.

Discover the Former Fukuoka Prefecture Public Hall VIP Pavilion (Kihinkan), an Important Cultural Property in Fukuoka City. Built in 1910 in French Renaissance style, this elegant wooden Western-style building features marble fireplaces, ornate ceilings, and a charming café in Tenjin Central Park.

Straddling Aka Village and Miyako Town in Fukuoka Prefecture, the Second Ishizaka Tunnel is a 75-meter brick tunnel built in 1895 by the Hōshū Railway Company. As the oldest surviving railway tunnel in Kyushu, it remains in daily active service on the Heisei Chikuhō Railway Tagawa Line and stands as a symbol of Meiji-era Japan-Germany technical exchange through the guidance of engineer Hermann Rumschöttel. It was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1999.

Discover the Kyushu Maxell Red Brick Memorial Hall (former Mitsubishi Hojo Coal Mine Workshop), a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Fukuchi, Fukuoka. This striking brick building from 1904 preserves the legacy of Japan's Chikuho coalfield era.

The Former Tamanoi Ryokan in Fukutsu City, Fukuoka Prefecture, is a two-story wooden inn built in 1909 and registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2025. As the sole surviving wooden ryokan in the historic Tsuyazaki Sengen district, it preserves the architectural heritage of an era when seaside resorts flourished along northern Fukuoka's coastline.

A 45-meter brick chimney of 1908 in Tagawa's Coal Memorial Park, laid in English bond to draft the mine's boiler house. Among the largest Meiji brick stacks left.

A 45-meter brick chimney of 1908 in Tagawa's Coal Memorial Park, octagonal at its base. With its twin it forms the two chimneys sung in the Tanko Bushi coal-mining song.

A 28-meter steel headframe of 1909 in Tagawa's Coal Memorial Park. Its two head sheaves raised the Ita Shaft's coal, and it is the only steel headframe left in Chikuho.

Discover the Chūai Tunnel, an 1889 brick-and-stone tunnel in Fukuoka Prefecture registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property. Learn about its role in Japan's coal transport history and its literary connections.

The Gate of Ryotei Sato Bessou, located along the historic Hikosan-michi road in Ogori City, Fukuoka Prefecture, is a wooden front gate built in the late Meiji period. Featuring thick pillars and a commanding roofline, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2021. Beyond the gate lies a distinguished ryotei restaurant housed in Taisho-era architecture with Japanese gardens, renowned for its wild duck cuisine captured using the traditional muso-ami netting technique.

Built around 1904 on a silkworm-egg fortune, this Date landmark joins a Western exterior and a semi-octagonal tower with Japanese parlors finished in rare hardwoods.

Discover the Former Date District Office in Koori, Fukushima — a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1883. Explore this stunning giyōfū (pseudo-Western) wooden building blending Japanese and Western architectural styles in the heart of Tohoku.

Standing along the historic Salt Road in Tochikubo, Minamisoma City, the Ogaike Family Residence East Storehouse is a late Meiji-period rice warehouse. This nationally registered tangible cultural property features namakokabe lattice walls, ornate plaster reliefs including a water-wheel crest, and together with its neighbouring Middle Storehouse and gate forms one of Fukushima's most intact merchant streetscapes.

A tiny household guardian shrine at the Sasa Masamune sake brewery in Kitakata, Fukushima. Built in 1886, it was one of two buildings spared by the June 2026 fire.

The shop-residence at the Sasa Masamune brewery in Kitakata, Fukushima. A timber house of the early Meiji era, it held the family's shop and home. Burned in June 2026.

The Jananohana Goten Kurazashiki in Motomiya City, Fukushima Prefecture, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property renowned for its exceptionally lavish interior within a traditional Tohoku-style earthen storehouse. Built as part of a wealthy landowner's Meiji-era villa over a decade of meticulous construction, it features painted screens by Kano-school artists and rare timbers, standing as a unique architectural treasure within the scenic Ja no Hana Gardens.

Nakamuraya Ryokan Shinkan is a three-story dozō-zukuri (storehouse-style) inn built around 1896 in the Yuzawa district of Iizaka Onsen, Fukushima City. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, this Meiji-era building features an open, airy design that contrasts beautifully with its Edo-period companion wing. Restored after the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake, it continues to welcome guests as a living piece of architectural heritage.

The United Church of Christ in Japan Wakamatsu Sakaemachi Church is a wooden Gothic-style church built in 1911 in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture. Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan, the church is celebrated for its elegant white clapboard exterior and pointed spire, and is renowned as the place where the world-famous bacteriologist Hideyo Noguchi was baptized at the age of eighteen.

Standing at the northern tip of Awaji Island in Hyogo Prefecture, Esaki Lighthouse was designed by the British engineer R. H. Brunton and first lit in 1871, making it one of Japan's earliest Western-style lighthouses and the third-oldest still in service. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 2022, the lighthouse offers sweeping views of the Akashi Kaikyo Bridge and preserves moving traces of the 1995 Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake. This guide explores its history, highlights, and visitor information.

A late-Meiji brick stable with a round corner tower in Kobe's Sorakuen garden. One of few Western-style stables left in Japan, it is an Important Cultural Property.