Muromachi

Known as Kokaya Yakushido, this square hall in Hida City, Gifu, was rebuilt in early Muromachi times from Kamakura-era timbers, as repair work in 1974 confirmed.

Five mountain forts ringing the Furukawa Basin in Gifu, designated a national historic site in 2024 for layered work by the Anekoji, Miki, and Kanamori clans.

Preserved at Entoku-ji Temple in Gifu City, the Rakuichi-Rakuza Seisatsu is a set of four original wooden placards (with one attached) issued by Oda Nobunaga and the Ikeda lords between 1567 and 1584. Posted at the gate of the Kanō market just after Nobunaga renamed Inabayama Castle to Gifu, they survive in remarkable physical form. Designated a Nationally Important Cultural Property in 1993, they are a primary source at the heart of Japan's economic history.

Gifu's Nagataki Hakusan Shrine holds 27 wooden masks from late Kamakura to late Edo — Okina, Sanbasō, kishin and rare hanataka faces of Hakusan worship.

Koda Shrine's main hall in Miyazaki is a rare medieval shrine in southern Kyushu, dated by ridge tags to 1448 and restored to its red-lacquer and gold-leaf finish.

Kodama Shrine's inner sanctuary in Miyakonojo is Miyazaki's oldest dated wooden building, a 1399 Buddhist tabernacle saved by villagers during the Meiji purges.

Originally preserved as a sacred treasure in an Ainu household in Hidaka, Hokkaido, this silver-mounted Kamakura-period tachi survives as a rare early example of Ezo-style ceremonial swords. Held by the Tohoku History Museum in Tagajo, Miyagi.

Izumo Daijingu's main hall in Kameoka, Kyoto: a three-bay nagare-zukuri sanctuary of 1346 under a cypress-bark roof, an Important Cultural Property since 1906.

The main hall of Itsuki Shrine in Ayabe, Kyoto, a one-bay nagare-style hall of the mid-Muromachi period with unusual Zen-style details, was designated in 2024.

Ridge tags date this single-bay nagare-zukuri hall in Kameoka to 1338, with rebuilding in 1459. A rare surviving village shrine of its era, designated in 1941.

Before Enjoji's main hall in northern Kyoto stands a stone stupa carved in 1351, dated by the Southern Court calendar and signed by a monk called Gyoshu.

Carved in 1358 on a wooded slope west of Kameoka, this granite pagoda is recorded as the only medieval thirteen-storey stone tower left standing in Tanba.

Built in 1419 in the hills of Nantan, this one-bay shrine hall preserves rare roof detail and the twelve carpenter's templates designated alongside it.

Early Muromachi stone hokyointo stupa on a base at Kakushoin, the sub-temple by the gate of Daikakuji in Saga, Kyoto; the temple grounds are open to visitors.

Three-storey pagoda of 1442 at Gansenji in Kizugawa, Kyoto, about 18 metres tall, dated by an inscription found in 1943; the ground floor opens seasonally.

This square, thatched, hipped Kannon hall at Shimo-Awano in Kyōtamba was raised before 1539. Ridge tablets fix its date; it is an Important Cultural Property.

Rebuilt in 1491, five years after a fire, this hall at Tō-ji's center houses Kukai's 21-statue mandala. Layout guide, hours, fees and 2026 special viewing.

Tō-ji's Founder's Hall, said to be Kūkai's home, was rebuilt in 1380 with a cypress-bark roof. Its house-like design, hidden Fudō and free daily 6 a.m. rite.

Myōshin-ji's oldest subtemple holds the Kaisandō, or Mishōan, a mid-Muromachi Zen-style hall moved from Tōfuku-ji in 1537 to honor its founder, Kanzan Egen.

At Gyokuhōin, Myōshin-ji's oldest sub-temple, a cypress-bark gate fronts the founder's hall. Tradition dates it to 1409, among Japan's oldest surviving karamon.