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.
Discover the Former Tsuruoka Police Station, a striking blue giyofu-style building from 1884, now preserved at the Chido Museum in Tsuruoka, Yamagata. Learn about its unique blend of Western and Japanese architectural design, its fascinating history, and how to visit.
Former Nishitagawa County Office in Tsuruoka: an 1881 Western-style timber office with a 20-metre clock tower by master builder Takahashi Kenkichi, now a museum.
Two-storey earthen storehouse of 1910 behind the Ichijima gun shop in Yamagata City, with a sukiya-style tatami room and thick plastered walls with double doors.
A board fence of about 1910 running 62 metres along the west side of the Kazama villa in Tsuruoka, relocated in 1954 and registered in 2003. Visible from the street.
A tiled yakuimon gate of about 1910 at the Kazama villa in Tsuruoka, registered in 2003. Just 2.1 metres wide, it has fish-shaped ridge tiles and splayed wing walls.
A plain bracket-armed gate of the early Meiji period at the back of the Kazama villa in Tsuruoka, registered in 2003, with big foundation stones and fine hinges.
A 1910 sukiya-style guest hall of Tsuruoka's Kazama merchants, registered in 2002. Seven nail-cover designs, a 1913 dog door, Mokuan's calligraphy and garden views.
A tiny bracket-armed gate of about 1910 beside the Shakado at the Kazama villa, registered in 2003. Herringbone sliding door, curved roof and carved bargeboards.
A storehouse of about 1897 moved in 1955 from the Kazama family home to their villa in Tsuruoka, registered in 2003. Separate roof, sturdy posts, lacquered interior.
Built in 1873, the Front Storehouse of the former Enman Orimono in Yonezawa survived the Taisho fires. Registered in 2020, it has red namako walls and fire shutters.
An 1899 earth-walled storehouse behind the farmhouse in Utamaru, Nagai, Yamagata, with a workroom to the north and a two-storey rice store; listed in 2022.
A late Edo-period thatched farmhouse in Utamaru, Nagai, Yamagata, with a smoke-vent gable on its hipped roof and paired reception rooms, registered in 2022.
A 1908 farm range in Utamaru, Nagai, Yamagata: a thatched tool shed joined to a metal-roofed barn for dairy cows, forming the farm's front; listed in 2022.
An 1887 earth-walled rice store in Utamaru, Nagai, Yamagata, with a separate metal roof over its plastered body and grain bins closed by drop boards; listed 2022.
Built in 1874 to hold a Nagai wholesaler's sugar, this single-storey earthen storehouse is about 12 metres long, with a separate roof and two tiers of sealed doors.
Said to have held pledged goods, this 1875 two-storey pawn storehouse in Nagai, Yamagata, has tall east windows whose shutters span both floors, framed in black.
A two-storey earthen storehouse built in 1874 in Nagai, Yamagata, its white walls edged with a black plaster band and six sealed openings on the south side.
Former Yamadera Hotel in Yamagata: a late-Meiji inn below Risshakuji that turned its karahafu entrance to the new station in 1936, now open as Yamagata Retro Hall.
A long early Meiji storehouse at a Yonezawa sake brewery, with barred windows, a red-tiled namako-kabe skirt and an unusual strutted rafter frame with no ridge beam.
A two-storey early Meiji strongroom on the north edge of a Yonezawa sake brewery: white plaster over a red-tiled namako-kabe skirt, with windows only facing inward.