Meiji

Built in 1912 to face Kyoto's Nishi Hongan-ji, this wooden police box mimics Western brick in tile. Now at Museum Meiji-mura, its cut corner rewards a close look.

Step onto the Tendō Spectacle Bridge at Meiji-mura, a graceful 1887 stone arch bridge originally built in Yamagata's Tendō. Crafted from local Yamadera stone with a distinctive horizontal deck inspired by Roman aqueducts, it stands as a quiet masterpiece of Meiji-era civil engineering preserved in Aichi's open-air museum.

Tucked into the Japanese Garden of Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi, the Tokyo School for the Blind Porte-cochère is a registered tangible cultural property that preserves the elegantly designed entrance porch of a 1910 Tokyo school building. Three free-standing arches, refined plant and geometric ornament, and half-timber detailing capture the artistic peak of late Meiji school architecture.

Standing on the quiet hilltop of Takabari in Meitō Ward, Nagoya, the Renkyō-ji Bell Tower is a small but exquisite wooden structure built in 1882. Featuring a hip-and-gable tile roof, splayed round columns, a deeply coffered ceiling, and charming turtle carvings on its gables, this Meiji-era treasure was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2017. Set within the precincts of a temple whose history reaches back over a thousand years, it offers travellers a tranquil encounter with traditional Japanese craftsmanship.

At the south-east corner of Renkei-ji in Agui, Aichi, this east-facing great gate of 1896 rests on unusually dense packed bracketry. Registered nationally in 2013.

Held in the Hosa Library in Nagoya, the Song Edition of the Taiping Shenghui Fang (Kanazawa Bunko Version) is a Southern Song printed copy of the imperial medical encyclopedia originally compiled in 100 volumes by Wang Huaiyin under the command of Emperor Taizong. Designated an Important Cultural Property, it traveled from Hōjō Sanetoki's Kanazawa Bunko through Toyotomi Hidetsugu and Tokugawa Ieyasu to the first Owari lord Tokugawa Yoshinao. The 24 surviving printed booklets, supplemented by 27 Keichō-era manuscript volumes, bear the distinctive 'Kanazawa Bunko' and 'Gohon' seals on every volume, making it a primary witness to East Asian medical history.

Discover the Former Kaimei School in Seiyo, Ehime — the oldest elementary school building in Shikoku, built in 1882. This Important Cultural Property features rare Giyōfū architecture, a museum with 6,000 educational artifacts, and hands-on Meiji-era classroom experiences.

Standing on the small island of Tsurushima off Matsuyama in Ehime Prefecture, Tsurushima Lighthouse is a Western-style stone lighthouse completed in 1873 to the design of Richard Henry Brunton, the Scottish engineer known as the Father of Japanese Lighthouses. It is one of the very few Meiji-era lighthouses still in active service in essentially its original form, and was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 2024 together with its former keepers' quarters, warehouse and stone walls.

Spanning the Kojoro River gorge in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, Otoshi Bridge is one of Japan's oldest surviving steel arch bridges. Built in 1905 with German Burbach steel as a combined road bridge and drainage channel for the legendary Besshi Copper Mine, this 48-metre spandrel-braced single-arch structure is registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Standing silently in a deep mountain gorge, it remains a vivid witness to the industrial heritage that powered Japan's modernization.

Discover the Former Hadeba Hydroelectric Power Station in Niihama, Ehime — a registered tangible cultural property built in 1912 with German-made generators, featuring the Orient's greatest water drop of 597 meters. Free admission, open since 2023.

Standing atop Mt. Shoji in Niihama, Ehime, the Former Yamane Smelter Chimney is a 19-meter Meiji-era brick chimney built in 1888 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2009. Discover its history, the Besshi Copper Mine, and how to visit "Entotsu-yama."

Kokon-so, a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Shikokuchuo City, Ehime Prefecture, is a refined wooden residence originally built around the end of the Meiji era as a secondary villa of an old family in former Kawanoe Village, then carefully relocated to its current site in Kamibun-cho during the late 1950s to mid-1960s. Its three formal rooms aligned in a row and its distinctive budo-dana (grape trellis) ceiling above the gallery corridor exemplify the high craftsmanship of late Meiji Japanese residential architecture.

Visit the Sasaki Sake Brewery Main Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Tobe Town, Ehime. Built around 1908, this Meiji-era sake house preserves the streetscape of a once-thriving mountain highway village in Shikoku.

Standing at the entrance of Meiseki-ji, the 43rd temple of the Shikoku 88 Temple Pilgrimage in Ehime Prefecture, the Niomon is a striking three-by-two-bay irimoya-style two-story gate. Distinctive red tiles, dragon-adorned ridge tiles, and rare Fujin and Raijin guardian statues make it a fascinating example of regional temple architecture. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2007, it preserves the artistic and spiritual heritage of southwestern Shikoku.

The Main Hall of Meiseki-ji Temple in Seiyo City, Ehime Prefecture, serves as the principal building of the 43rd sacred site on the Shikoku Pilgrimage and was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2007. Constructed between 1882 and 1890 by master carpenters of the Ikata school, this five-bay-square hall features a striking red Sekishu-tile roof and an elaborate karahafu front porch adorned with intricate carvings of dragons, phoenixes, and mythical beasts. Discover a thousand-year-old temple where the heritage of Genko-zan Enshu-in Meiseki-ji meets the finest craftsmanship of Meiji-era religious architecture.

Located in Ushiku, Ibaraki, the former brewery of Château Kamiya was completed in 1903 as Japan's first authentic wine château, founded by entrepreneur Kamiya Denbei. The Storage Cellar and Fermentation Room — brick structures designed around Bordeaux techniques and a gravity-fed vertical workflow — form the production heart of the complex, with twenty-six massive fermentation barrels still in place. Designated an Important Cultural Property in 2008, the buildings now welcome visitors as the Kamiya Denbei Memorial Hall, free of charge.

On the dramatic cliffs of Izura in northern Ibaraki stands the former residence and garden of Okakura Tenshin (1862–1913), the thinker who shaped modern Japanese art. Visitors can see his self-designed home, the vermilion Hexagonal Hall (Rokkakudō) rebuilt after the 2011 tsunami, a moss-and-pine garden, and the sweeping Pacific bays of Daigoura and Shōgoura — a National Registered Monument of rare cultural and scenic value.

Tucked away in the historic post town of Takabu in Hitachiomiya City, Ibaraki, Yokoen is a pond-and-stroll garden created by sake brewer Okayama Sentaro in the mid-Meiji era. Modeled on Mito's famed Kobuntei pavilion at Kairakuen, the garden and its three-story Kiu-tei pavilion are designated nationally registered cultural properties.

The miso storehouse of the Iwase residence in Tsuchiura, Ibaraki, a former headman's estate, is a two-storey timber store with deep lean-to eaves and white plaster.

The Ushioda sodegura is a tall storehouse adjoining the shop, gable to the street. Built in 1912, a door opens to the shop counter, forming one unified merchant frontage.