Edo

Experience Japan's most sacred Buddhist temple where an eternal flame has burned since 788 CE. Konpon Chudo at Enryaku-ji offers visitors unique architecture, stunning mountain views, and a rare glimpse into traditional restoration crafts during its historic renovation project through 2031.

Discover the Seianji Guest Hall, an Important Cultural Property of Japan near Lake Biwa. Explore Momoyama-era architecture, Hasegawa school paintings, and legendary Ano-shu stone walls in Sakamoto, Otsu.

Discover the Kannon-shoji Shoin Garden Gate, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property from 1844. This rare Yakuimon gate survives from the Edo period, offering a unique glimpse into traditional Japanese temple architecture near Lake Biwa.

Discover Nidouji Shrine's 1703 Main Hall, an Important Cultural Property showcasing rare Kasuga-zukuri architecture with exquisite craftsmanship from the Edo period in Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

Nine documents by Kawachiya Kashō, a wealthy farmer and brewer, and his heirs reveal how an educated villager in Edo Japan weighed family, learning, and survival.

Discover the 953-item Important Cultural Property collection documenting the achievements of Kunitomo Ikkansai (1778–1840), the 'Edison of the Edo Period.' From Japan's first reflecting telescope and sunspot observation records to the country's first practical air gun, explore the extraordinary scientific legacy born in a small gunsmith village in Shiga Prefecture.

The Main Hall of Hando Shrine, perched atop Mt. Hando (664 m) in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property rebuilt in 1650. Adorned with vermilion lacquer and gold leaf in the Momoyama architectural style, it crowns a sacred mountain renowned as a Shugendo training ground and legendary home of the Koga ninja.

Built in 1634 as a Tokugawa shrine hall, Enryaku-ji's Great Lecture Hall was moved up Mount Hiei in 1963. An Important Cultural Property of early Edo carpentry.

An Important Cultural Property in Otsu, this 1670 shoin of Otsu Betsuin wraps in a U shape around a courtyard. A rare niche, hearth and shelf set its plan apart.

Ōtsu Betsuin Main Hall, Shiga, rebuilt in 1649, anchors a Higashi Hongan-ji branch founded in 1600 by the priest Kyonyo. An early-Edo Important Cultural Property.

Discover the Important Cultural Properties of Ganzanken and Rantei at Daitsuji Temple in Nagahama, Shiga. These Edo-period shoin halls feature sliding door paintings by Kano Sanraku, Kano Sansetsu, and Maruyama Okyo, with nationally designated scenic gardens incorporating Mt. Ibuki as borrowed scenery.

The Grand Hall (Hiroma) of Daitsuji Temple in Nagahama, Shiga Prefecture, is an Important Cultural Property of Japan believed to have originated as the formal audience chamber of Fushimi Castle. Its shoin-zukuri architecture and vivid Momoyama-era screen paintings by Kano school artists offer visitors an extraordinary window into Japan's feudal past. Discover the intertwined history of this Higashi Honganji branch temple and the powerful Ii clan of Hikone.

Chiyo Shrine in Hikone City, Shiga Prefecture, is home to a main hall (honden) designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan, built in 1638 during the early Edo period. As reportedly the only shrine in Japan enshrining Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto—the goddess of performing arts—as its principal deity, it attracts actors, musicians, and artists from across the country. The three-bay nagare-zukuri hall features exquisite polychrome carvings and lacquerwork, representing the finest of early Edo shrine architecture.

Tucked into the western foothills of the Suzuka Mountains in Higashiomi City, Shiga, the Main Hall of Hyakusai-ji Temple is an early Edo-period Buddhist hall completed in 1650 and designated an Important Cultural Property in 2004. Founded according to tradition by Prince Shōtoku in 606, this Tendai temple was rebuilt by the monk Ryōzan after Oda Nobunaga's destruction of the complex. The hall preserves the tripartite spatial order of medieval Buddhist halls while embracing early-modern aesthetics, and stands as one of the famed Three Mountain Temples east of Lake Biwa, celebrated for autumn foliage, the Thousand-Year Bodhi Tree, stone-paved approach, and the Garden of Distant Views.

The Former Miyaji Family Residence, relocated to the Omi Fudoki no Oka historical park in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, is a mid-Edo period farmhouse originally built in 1754 in Kunitomo — one of Japan's most famous gun-manufacturing villages. Designated as a national Important Cultural Property in 1968, this thatched-roof dwelling preserves rare archaic features of the Kohoku regional building tradition, including earthen-floor living spaces. Located next to the Azuchi Castle Archaeological Museum, it can be visited alongside Azuchi Castle ruins and other Sengoku-era heritage sites.

A National Historic Site since 2020, the Nagahara and Iba Goten in Shiga are remains of palaces used exclusively by the Tokugawa shoguns on the road to Kyoto.

Enjuin Main Hall, located in Minami-Shimizu, Higashiomi City, Shiga Prefecture, is a Jodo (Pure Land) Buddhist temple hall built in 1711. Despite its modest scale, this irimoya-style tiled-roof structure features robust timbers and exquisite carved transoms at the boundary of its outer and inner halls. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2003, it stands as an excellent example of mid-Edo period rural temple architecture in the Koto Plain east of Lake Biwa.

The Oku-Ibuki Furusato Denshokan is an early Edo-period thatched-roof farmhouse in the remote mountain village of Kozuhara, Maibara City, Shiga Prefecture. As the sole building to survive four devastating fires that struck the village over a span of roughly thirty years during the late Edo period, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. The museum preserves hemp textiles and folk artifacts, and its distinctive vertically planked kitchen floor—once used as a Noh performance stage—reflects Kozuhara's remarkable heritage as a village of the performing arts.

Above the main hall of Kawaraya-ji in Shiga, this small 1700 founder's hall honours the monk who revived the temple and shows the Zen style at close range.

Built in 1725, this sutra hall at Kawaraya-ji holds an octagonal revolving scripture case and bold shrimp-beam framing. It is the one building listed for design merit.