Muromachi

Discover Oyamazumi Shrine's Honden, a 1427 Muromachi-period Important Cultural Property on Omishima Island. This three-bay nagare-zukuri main hall stands at the heart of Japan's "head shrine" — the Sōchinju — revered for centuries by samurai, sea lords, and pilgrims along the Shimanami Kaido.

A granite hokyointo behind the main hall of Nishiyama Koryuji in Saijo, Ehime: 305 cm tall, of the Nanboku-cho period, and intact from its base to its spire.

The 1375 main hall of Nishiyama Koryuji in Saijo, Ehime: a large hall mixing Japanese and Zen elements, under a hipped roof that looks almost pyramidal.

A small 1431 Kannon hall at Shounji on Iwagi Island, Ehime: a Zen-style tile-roofed hall with radiating fan rafters and a rare double-lotus altar railing.

A three-bay hall of 1463 with a pyramidal tile roof on Yugeshima, Ehime, noted for rare bracketing and original materials that survive right down to its roof tiles.

Completed in 1484 at temple 49 of the Shikoku pilgrimage in Matsuyama, this 5-bay hipped hall blends wayo and zenshuyo; its shrine bears pilgrim graffiti of 1525.

A three-bay Zen-style hall of about 1483 in the hills of Kihoku, its thatch restored in 1982 after decades under pantiles, with a well-preserved shrine inside.

Erected in 1465 on Mount Tomiya in Ibaraki, this three-bay pagoda carries a finial inscription naming both its patron and its master carpenter. Designated in 1906.

Built in 1543 and shorn of its upper storey in the Kansei era, Sairenji Niomon still carries three-stepped brackets designed to hold a balcony that is long gone.

The 1546 main hall of Satakeji in Hitachiota, Ibaraki, prayer temple of the Satake clan: a thatched hall wrapped in a shingled pent roof with a central cusped gable.

A Muromachi-period gate at Zenkoji in Ishioka, begun by the Oda clan as a two-storey romon but left unfinished; parts meant for the upper level remain in its roof.

The main hall of Yakuoin in Mito, rebuilt in 1529: an unusually large seven-bay hall in a regional Muromachi style, later repaired under Tokugawa Mitsukuni.

A late Muromachi pagoda at Raigoin in Ryugasaki, Ibaraki. The finial inscription names Toki Haruhide and the year 1556. Square below, round above, listed in 2006.

The Sanbutsudo of Ryuzenji in Toride, Ibaraki, a thatched hall from before 1569, enshrines three Buddhas and keeps a local blend of Zen and native styles.

The thatched four-legged gate of Ryogonji in Kasama, family temple of the Kasama clan, dates from the mid-Muromachi period and has been protected since 1917.

Pagoda at Fukushoji in Bizen, rebuilt in 1441 by the shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori. Of its 19.72 metres, 6.12 are a cast-iron finial; deep eaves mark the Muromachi age.

Rebuilt in 1543, the North Zuijinmon at Kibitsu Shrine mirrors its tiled southern twin but wears a cypress-bark roof. It became an Important Cultural Property in 1913.

Built in 1357, the South Zuijinmon is the oldest building at Kibitsu Shrine, a tile-roofed eight-legged gate listed as an Important Cultural Property in 1911.

The Main Halls of Kumano Shrine in Hayashi, Kurashiki City, Okayama, comprise six independent buildings arranged in a single row, deliberately patterned on the layout of Kumano Hongū-taisha in Kii. The central Second Hall, rebuilt in 1492, is a National Important Cultural Property and a rare survivor of mid-Muromachi painted shrine architecture, with vermillion-lacquered timbers and white gofun walls in a refined sumi-ki-iri kasuga-zukuri style. The other five halls were rebuilt in 1647 under the patronage of the Okayama daimyō Ikeda Mitsumasa. The shrine was founded in 701 and has long been one of western Japan's leading centers of Kumano worship and Shugendō.

Granite shrine in Shimoashimori, Okayama City, dated 1338 by its porch-pillar inscription and built for Oji Gongen. Kasuga-style front, hipped back; 2.0 metres tall.