Meiji

The 1896 Kanayago shrine of the Itohara house, barely 0.9 square metres, enshrining the deity of ironmaking revered by tatara smelters. Its smallest registered building.

The late-Meiji enclosure wall of the Itohara house, a timber wall with tiled coping about 36 metres long, tying the ceremonial gate and stone pillars into one frontage.

The late-Meiji reception rooms of the Itohara house, remodelled in 1936, where the lord of Matsue was received. The family kept tea utensils of the tea-master lord Fumai.

The 1876 south storehouse of the Itohara house, earliest dated of its buildings. A two-storey white-plastered dozo of about 193 square metres, largest of its stores.

The late-Meiji stone gate pillars of the Itohara house, framing an opening about 3.7 metres wide, the everyday counterpart to its timber ceremonial gate.

Standing on the grounds of Shimane Prefectural Taisha High School near Izumo Taisha Grand Shrine, Inasa Kaikan is the former 1902 auditorium of Shimane Prefectural Third Middle School. A nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it showcases pseudo-Western Meiji school architecture with clapboard siding, sash windows, and a distinctive octagonal entrance porch preserved from the original main building.

The Former Gōtsu Post Office, located along the Tenryō Gōtsu Honmachi Iraka Kaidō heritage streetscape in Shimane Prefecture, is a two-story wooden Western-influenced building constructed around 1887 by a local timber merchant who modeled it after trading houses in Kobe. With its white plaster walls, simulated cornerstones, and blue-painted pillars, it is one of Japan's oldest surviving post office buildings and was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2009.

The Meiji rice storehouse at Shimomori Brewery in Tsuwano held rice for sake. Its white gable bears a plaster kanko-dori rooster, an old symbol of peaceful rule.

At 444 square metres, the former sake storehouse is the largest at Shimomori Brewery in Tsuwano. Its roofs, layered by repeated additions, embody sake-making itself.

The early-Meiji store and residence anchors Shimomori Brewery in Tsuwano. Alone of the seven buildings, it was registered as a model of design for its fine joinery.

The early-Meiji ridged gate at Shimomori Brewery in Tsuwano stands before the main house, its ridge in wave-pattern tiles and its paired beams cut from a single timber.

Explore the Shimada Family Residence Main House in Masuda, Shimane—a registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1888, featuring the striking Sekishu red-tile roof and traditional Meiji-era architecture.