Muromachi

Held at the Kyushu National Museum, this Important Cultural Property is a Yuan-dynasty Chinese tea bowl from the 13th–14th century. A rare kiln effect at the boundary of its black and brown glazes produces a silvery 'rainbow' band that gave the bowl its name. Its provenance traces back to the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa.

The Amida hall of Shorenji in Taragi, Kumamoto, built in about 1443, is a 5 by 5 bay hall under a hipped thatched roof, with a shingled porch and 2 ridge tags.

Hasshoji Amida Hall in Yunomae, Kumamoto, is a three-bay Buddhist hall of the late 15th century. Inside stands a Zen-style zushi sheltering an Amida triad of 1490.

The stone kasa-sotoba in Shibukawa, Gunma, a memorial of a post with a cap-like stone roof dated 1356, has been an Important Cultural Property since 1953.

The Hachimangu-Inari Shrine Hall, a subordinate shrine within the precincts of Raiden Shrine in Itakura, Gunma, is the oldest extant wooden shrine building in Gunma Prefecture. Built in 1547 during the late Muromachi period, it features a rare two-bay (nikensha) hip-and-gable design—one of only seven such examples among Japan's nationally designated Important Cultural Properties—enshrining both Hachiman and Inari deities under one roof.

Zen-style Buddha hall at Ankokuji in Tomo, Fukuyama, said to be the hall of the former Kinpoji, repaired by Ankokuji Ekei in 1599 and housing an Amida triad.

Erected in 1407 on Tonooka hill, the Itsukushima Shrine Five-Storied Pagoda hides Shingon patriarchs and a Chinese landscape inside a storey no visitor may enter.

Built in 1523 in Omoto Park, this three-bay hall carries a long-board roof laid six deep in three courses, a covering with no other surviving example in Japan.

Late Muromachi and entered from the gable, this hall has a roof sweep close to straight where every neighbour curves, and its worship space doubles as a corridor.

Built by Mori Takamoto in 1556, this is the one hall at Itsukushima left as bare timber with plaster walls, and a rare survival of a Muromachi renga poetry hall.

Built in 1523 by the Zen monk Shukan, the Itsukushima Shrine Two-Storied Pagoda sets a circular upper storey on a square base beneath a rare shingled roof.

Two bays by one and built of stacked logs, the Itsukushima Shrine Treasure House is the only building here whose walls carry themselves. Its contents left in 1934.

Raised in 1441 by a man named on its ridge tablet, this one-bay hall in the Miyajima town district breaks the symmetry of its carving slightly at the centre.

Katsurahama Shrine's main hall on Kurahashi Island, near Kure, dates to 1480 by its ridge tag, a Muromachi hall rare in the region for round eaves pillars.

The gate of Saigoji in Onomichi, Hiroshima, is a plain munemon of the late 1300s, tile-roofed and listed in 1961. Two posts, one beam, and Muromachi carving above.

Saigoji's main hall in Onomichi, Hiroshima is the oldest surviving Jishu main hall in Japan, begun in 1353 and listed in 1961. Clap inside and the ceiling answers.

Rebuilt in 1386 under the Yamana governors of Bingo, Saikokuji Kondo in Onomichi crowns 108 stone steps, its wayo bracketing and tiled roof designated in 1913.

Given by shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori in 1429, Saikokuji's three-storey pagoda in Onomichi rises from a stone podium with no veranda, a rare revivalist wayo design.

Jodoji Temple Amida Hall in Onomichi was built in 1345 as the temple's main hall. A hipped-roof wayo hall; see how it differs from its neighbor and how to enter.

Jodoji Temple Main Gate in Onomichi is a 14th-century four-legged gate with the Ashikaga crest in its gables and eaves matching the Main Hall porch. What to see.