Muromachi
室町Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Muromachi period (1336 – 1573). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
The Chohoji Temple Tahoto Pagoda in Kainan, Wakayama, dated 1357 and a National Treasure since 1953, is a pure Japanese-style pagoda; the temple is closed.
Rebuilt in 1462, the Main Hall of Tomobuchi Hachiman Shrine in Kinokawa is Wakayama's only three-bay nagare-zukuri with a front chamber and Kyoto-style carving.
The three main halls of Niukanshofu Shrine in Kudoyama, Wakayama, kasuga-style halls of 1517 and 1541, stand within the Kii Mountain Range World Heritage site.
The Daito of Negoroji Temple in Iwade City, Wakayama, is Japan's largest wooden tahoto pagoda. Completed in 1547 after 67 years of construction and standing some 37 meters tall, it is the only National Treasure tahoto whose interior is regularly open to visitors—offering a rare chance to experience the cosmic geometry of Shingon esoteric Buddhism from within.
A single-bay nagare-zukuri hall of about 1572 with a cypress-bark roof, among the smallest buildings at this Wakayama shrine and designated in 1944. Free entry.
Known as the Wakamiya, this three-bay hall at a Kimino Town shrine in Wakayama carries five ridge tablets, the most in the precinct, and was designated in 1944.
A three-bay nagare-zukuri sanctuary of 1572 with a cypress-bark roof in Kimino Town, Wakayama, designated in 1944. The precinct is open all year, free of charge.
A single-bay Kasuga-style hall of 1502 at Hirohachiman Shrine in Hirokawa, Wakayama, listed in 1929, matching its neighbour of 1493 in size and in form.
The small Kasuga-style hall of 1493 beside the main sanctuary at Hirohachiman Shrine in Hirokawa, Wakayama, listed in 1929, dated by eleven surviving ridge tags.
A three-bay cypress-bark sanctuary of about 1413 at Hirohachiman Shrine in Hirokawa, Wakayama, listed in 1929, with a symmetrical gentian strut at the rear.
The two-storied tiled gate of 1475 at the entrance to Hirohachiman Shrine in Hirokawa, Wakayama, listed in 1947 and the starting point of the autumn procession.
The main hall of Hōon-ji in Aridagawa, Wakayama, dates to 1457, fixed by a ridge plaque in its roof. A small, square, thatched hall protected nationally since 1917.
Hōzō-ji's bell tower in Wakayama is a Muromachi-period building with a hipped roof rare on such towers. Its bell reportedly warned villagers of the 1854 tsunami.
The main hall of Risho Gokokuji in Hashimoto, Wakayama, is a five-bay hipped-roof hall rebuilt around 1375, an Important Cultural Property with vermilion pillars.
An Important Cultural Property at Sainanin on Mt. Kōya, showing the guardian deity Daigensui Myōō. The Agency for Cultural Affairs records it as a Yuan Chinese work.
An Important Cultural Property at Kongobuji, from Yuan-dynasty China. Tradition calls it Yakushi, the Medicine Buddha, but its official title names only a buddha.
An iron-bound wooden grain measure dated 1396, the Kōya masu set the rice tax for Mount Kōya's Kanshōfu Estate and is Japan's oldest standard measure of known date.
A 6,285-volume Korean Goryeo Buddhist canon at Koyasan, dedicated in 1599 by Ishida Mitsunari for his late mother and kept in an octagonal revolving bookcase.
This Wakayama shrine holds about 1,200 medieval court furnishings from around 1390, from gold-lacquer toiletry boxes with their fittings to painted cypress fans.
A Muromachi tachi by Kagenaga of Inaba Province, given to Susa Shrine in Arida, Wakayama, by the shogun Tokugawa Yoshimune in 1721 and kept as a shrine treasure.