Meiji
Shizuoka · 明治Browse Shizuoka’s cultural heritage from the Meiji period (1868 – 1912). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
Lit in 1874 on Cape Omaezaki in Shizuoka, this brick tower carried Japan's first rotating first-order lens. Designated in 2021, it remains open to climb.
Built in 1874 beside the tower at Omaezaki, Shizuoka, this brick house held keepers for 125 years. Designated in 2021, it now displays a rediscovered machine.
The Hotokusha public hall in Kakegawa, built in 1903 for the Hotoku movement, is Japanese below and Western above, with galleries round an 81-mat hall.
On Tōgō Beach in Numazu, the Former Numazu Imperial Villa Garden was an imperial retreat across three eras. Its surviving 26-room West Annex stands amid black pines.
Yuki no Mune, an 1899 wing at Arai Ryokan in Shuzenji, sits between two streams from the Hana no Ike pond. Its bath wing has a curved mukuri roof with a smoke vent.
Watari no Hashi is an 1899 roofed drum bridge at Arai Ryokan in Shuzenji, linking Tsuki no Mune and Yuki no Mune. Its gapped board floor reveals the stream as you cross.
A 1907 merchant house in Ito City, registered in 2015 and open for 100 yen, honouring the poet and dermatologist Kinoshita Mokutaro, born nearby in 1885.
Ume Goten in Rakujuen park, Mishima, is a sukiya villa of 1890 built for Prince Komatsu, with a plum-wood alcove post and rooms stepped down the slope.
The Triumphal Memorial Gate at Rokusho Shrine in Hamamatsu, built in 1906 for the Russo-Japanese War, is an early brick arch in Shizuoka with sawtooth capitals.
The Kangyodo Tunnel of 1910 in Atami, Shizuoka, carries the old Atami-Ito road through the Uomizaki headland in cut stone, its portals framed by pilasters.
The red-brick warehouse by Kikugawa Station in Shizuoka, a late Meiji tea store, keeps its arched openings and traces of tea blending from the local trade.
The Former Nanki Library, built in 1899 and moved twice to a hill above Sagami Bay in Atami, is a refined Renaissance-style building with plant motifs in its frieze.
The Rokusho family ran a Shingon temple below Mount Fuji until Meiji edicts closed it. Their wide three-bay gate and 43 metres of fence were registered in 2017.
The Tsurutani shop-house in Kakezuka, Iwata, built around 1884, keeps a projecting front lattice and bracketed eaves that recall the early Meiji town.
The Tokaido Headman's House in Yui, Shizuoka, is the late Meiji home of the Koike family, village headmen for generations, now open to visitors as the Koike-tei.
Moved to Hokoji Temple in Hamamatsu in 1885 from an inn on the Tokaido highway, this residence keeps the raised room and antechamber prepared for the Meiji emperor.
Built in the middle Meiji years at Hokoji Temple in Hamamatsu, this 32-square-metre hall is an open-fronted earthen stage facing the guardian shrine of Hansobo.
Standing west of the Main Hall at Hokoji Temple in Hamamatsu, this Meiji hall of 17 square metres carries a pyramidal tiled roof and houses an image of Kannon.
Set on a terrace above the kitchen wing at Hokoji Temple in Hamamatsu, this Meiji building houses the office of the administrative head of the branch.
Joined to the rear of the Founder's Hall at Hokoji Temple in Hamamatsu, this small Meiji shrine of 24 square metres carries finely carved beam ornament.