Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Tochigi

Discover Yuden Miso Higashigura, a registered tangible cultural property in Tochigi City. Experience authentic Meiji-era warehouse architecture, traditional miso cuisine, and craft beer in Japan's charming 'Little Edo' district.

Visit the Former Yamanaka Family Residence (Yoakemae), a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Shimotsuke City, Tochigi. Experience authentic Edo-period farmhouse architecture, enjoy artisan coffee at a heritage café, and explore Tenpyo no Oka Park's 500 cherry trees. A perfect off-the-beaten-path Japan destination.

Built in 1908 with a donation from the British Miners' Mission, Ashio Christian Church is the only surviving early church in what was once Japan's leading copper-mining town. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2014, this small wooden chapel preserves the spiritual life of the miners who powered Japan's industrial rise.

Located in Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, the Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Museum (former Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Exchange) preserves the legacy of Japan's first private telephone network, installed in 1886. This single-story wooden building, built in 1951 to house the relocated Mato Exchange, is the only surviving telephone exchange of the Ashio Copper Mine and was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2016. Manual switchboards and historic telephones on display offer a window into Japan's modern communications history.

Built around 1907, the back gate of the Iizuka new residence is timber with a pantile gabled roof. Though at the rear, it is large and finely built.

Built of granite around 1907, the Iizuka new residence front gate has tile-roofed board fences on stone bases. Its tall single-stone posts signal the family's rank.

The Shintaku main house of the Iizuka residence in Bato, built around 1907, shows an early modern feel in its orderly plan and refined reception rooms.

The courtyard gate of the Iizuka new residence, built around 1908, links storehouse and main house, enclosing an inner garden behind openwork lattice fences.

A two-story dozo built in 1908 behind the Iizuka main house, this storehouse was plastered even over its timber for fire safety. It is now a loft-style guest room.

From the late Edo period, the Iizuka main residence front gate is the compound's oldest structure. The main house is gone, but this large munamon gate survives.

Discover Otani Kobikan, a beautifully preserved Meiji-period (1897) wooden photo studio in Kanuma, Tochigi. Built by a young entrepreneur inspired by Kobe's foreign settlement architecture, this Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property features a distinctive slant studio with a glass skylight and decorative gable bearing the character for 'beauty.'

The Orihime Shrine Hall, located on the slopes of Mount Orihime in Ashikaga City, Tochigi Prefecture, is a reinforced concrete shrine building completed in 1937 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2004. Designed by architect Kobayashi Fukutaro, the vermilion-lacquered shrine is said to be modeled after the Phoenix Hall of Byodo-in in Uji, earning it the poetic name 'The Dragon Palace on Land.' As the guardian shrine of Ashikaga's 1,200-year textile heritage, it is also celebrated as a sacred place for lovers, a Japan Night View Heritage site, and one of Japan's Hundred Great Moon-Viewing Spots.

At the deepest end of Itamuro Onsen in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, Kadoya Ryokan Honkan stands as a rare survivor of a vanishing Japan. Built around 1919 in the eighth year of the Taisho era, this three-story wooden inn was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2016. Its preserved third-floor row of six-mat guest rooms and its distinctive eastern balustrade evoke the atmosphere of an early-twentieth-century therapeutic spa, served by Itamuro's renowned alkaline waters once known as Shimotsuke no Yakuto.

Tucked away at the innermost end of Itamuro Onsen in northern Tochigi Prefecture, Katoya Ryokan Yusenkaku is a graceful two-story wooden inn building completed in 1952. Together with the Main Building (1919) and the Annex (late Taisho to early Showa), it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2016. With its gable roof, irimoya-style entrance canopy, and tokonoma alcoves of finely selected woods, Yusenkaku embodies the renewed confidence of post-war Japanese inn architecture. Discover the strongly alkaline 'medicinal waters of Shimotsuke' alongside a rare ensemble of three eras of ryokan design.

Standing in the heart of Utsunomiya City in Tochigi Prefecture, Catholic Matsugamine Church was completed in 1932 to designs by the Swiss architect Max Hindel. Its Romanesque Revival sanctuary, with twin octagonal spires and walls clad in locally quarried Oya stone, is the largest surviving structure of its kind in Japan and was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 1998. Discover an inspired meeting of European tradition and Japanese craftsmanship.

On the second bailey of Karasawayama Castle in Sano, Tochigi, the 1915 kagura hall of Karasawayama Shrine offers a copper-roofed stage for sacred dance.

The worship gate of Karasawayama Shrine in Sano, Tochigi, was built in 1883 at its founding, the oldest building on the mountain, with plain knotty pillars.

Crossing a moat of Karasawayama Castle in Sano, Tochigi, the 1924 sacred bridge of Karasawayama Shrine is reinforced concrete disguised as a stone bridge.

Around the main hall of Karasawayama Shrine in Sano, Tochigi, run the 1909 inner gate and 52-meter openwork fence, their diamond lattice framing the sanctuary.

At the summit of Karasawayama Castle ruins in Sano, Tochigi, the 1909 worship hall of Karasawayama Shrine opens on four sides beneath a graceful copper roof.