Meiji
明治Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
Built in 1889, the oldest survivor. As the Kato family annex it lodged guests, with royalty named in local records; its black south wall anchors the streetscape.
A wall running about 28 metres along the front. Its southern base is granite in a tortoiseshell pattern, finished in black plaster, paired with the annex behind.
Discover the main hall of Kozenji Temple in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1893 by the Takenaka family. Standing on the ruins of Haguro Castle, this Rinzai Zen temple traces its origins to the Kamakura-period warrior Kajiwara Kagetoki.
The Kojima Residence roofed wall runs 56 metres along a lane in Inuyama's castle town, fronting a 1597 sake brewery with a formal honored gate. Registered in 2005.
The gate of Saishin-ji, a Jodo Shinshu temple in Anjo, Aichi, is a small four-legged gate built in 1903, richly carved with dragons and registered in 2022.
A small earthen storehouse at Sairenji temple near Inuyama Station, built in the Meiji era and moved here in 1937. One of the temple's five registered buildings.
A registered 1872 farmhouse in Kira, Aichi, built by a coastal shipping family. Its drama is overhead: a well-crib roof frame above the earthen-floored rooms.
The Sahashi Family Residence in Inuyama, known as Toraya, is a mid-Meiji townhouse registered in 2007 for its balustraded upper windows and black-plaster end bays.
Discover Jakkō-in Hondō, a registered cultural property in Inuyama, Aichi. Rebuilt in 1879, this graceful main hall sits on Mt. Tsugao surrounded by 1,000 maple trees, blending Buddhist tradition with stunning seasonal beauty.
The smallest of the seven, this late-Meiji tea room is barely four mats. Tradition credits it to local master Shimomura Mitsuyoshi, and bamboo runs throughout.
A Kobo Daishi hall of 1909 at Shounji, a Zen temple in Inuyama's old castle town, with three ten-mat rooms under coffered ceilings. Registered in 2012.
This late Meiji bell tower at Shounji Temple in Inuyama fits classical carpentry, brackets and frog-leg struts, into 18 square meters. Registered in 2012.
Discover the Seto Eisen Church Chapel, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1900 in Seto City, Aichi. This charming wooden chapel blends Western and Japanese architectural techniques and remains an active place of worship today.
A mid-Meiji earthen kura in Inuyama's old castle town, the Takino Family Storehouse shows namako-kabe walls and heavy earthen fire doors, registered in 2004.
Built in 1902 in an old Aichi cotton town, the pale-blue wooden Chita Okada Simple Post Office was Chita's first registered cultural property and still sells stamps.
The main hall of Chobo-ji in Nagoya is a registered hojo-style building rebuilt in 1894 after the Great Nobi Earthquake, at a Zen temple founded by the monk Muju.
Built in 1887, the saimonden and corridor of Chiryu Shrine in Aichi link its halls under one cypress-bark roof, a rare Owari-style layout registered in 2014.
The Ubagami-sha at Chiryu-jinja in Aichi is a vermilion Meiji-period auxiliary shrine to a mother goddess of childbirth, registered for its fine carving.
Chiryū-an, a Meiji-era tea house relocated to Chiryū Shrine in 1968, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property prized for sukiya touches such as bark-edged posts.
Discover Nakamura Park Memorial Hall, a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in 1910 in Nagoya. This elegant shoin-zukuri guest house once hosted the Crown Prince and stands as the oldest surviving Meiji-era public wooden building in the city.