Important Cultural Property of Tochigi

The Awaji no Kuni Ōtabumi is an original land register of Awaji Province created in April 1223, shortly after the Jōkyū War. Compiled under the direction of shugo Naganuma Munemasa on orders from regent Hōjō Yasutoki, it records the estates, public lands, and military stewards of the province's two districts. As one of the rarest surviving original ōtabumi from the Kamakura period, it is designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan.

The Aoki villa in Nasushiobara, Tochigi, built in 1888 by Matsugasaki Tsumunaga for a pioneer farm, is clad in scale-patterned slate and open as a memorial museum.

The front gate of Entsuji in Mashiko, Tochigi, a four-legged gate of 1511 under a gabled copper roof shaped like thatch, was designated by the state in 1916.

Ōsaki Shrine in Moka City, Tochigi Prefecture, is a venerable Engishiki-listed shrine with over 1,500 years of history. Dedicated to the gods of fortune Daikoku and Ebisu, its Main Hall (1707) and Worship Hall (late 17th century) feature extraordinary polychrome carvings by master sculptor Shimamura Entetsu, designated as Important Cultural Properties of Japan in 2018. The shrine represents a pioneering stage in the development of ornate decorative shrine architecture in northern Kantō.

The Former Nikko Tamozawa Imperial Villa in Nikko, Tochigi, listed in 2003, links ten buildings and 106 rooms under one roof, among them a moved Edo daimyo mansion.

Built in 1537 at Mashiko in Tochigi, this pagoda changes style at every storey, Japanese below and Chinese-derived fan rafters above, beneath an unusual copper roof.

Inside the main hall at Mashiko in Tochigi stands a black-lacquered miniature shrine inscribed 1394, though its carving has also been read as work of the 1490s.

This thatched two-storied gate at Mashiko in Tochigi dates to the 1490s. Its columns are cut with thirty-two facets and Chinese-style brackets carry the balustrade.

Jizoin Main Hall in Mashiko, Tochigi, dated to about 1542 and listed in 1916, is the Amida hall of a lost Utsunomiya clan temple. The interior is normally closed.

Built around 1889 in Nogi Town, Tochigi, this sixteen-sided Hoffmann kiln fired brick for eighty years. One of four left in Japan; 100 yen to walk inside.

Built in 1527, Ōkura Shrine's main hall is a small single-bay thatched structure beside Tsuna Shrine in Mashiko, Tochigi, and an Important Cultural Property.

Tsuna Shrine's thatched main hall in Mashiko, Tochigi, is a Muromachi building tied to exiled lord Utsunomiya Asatsuna, an Important Cultural Property since 1916.

A thatched farmhouse in Motegi, Tochigi, dated 1689 by its surviving ridge tag. Low double beams, an adzed post in the earth-floored bay; interior by appointment.

Bannaji Kyōdō in Ashikaga holds an octagonal revolving case with over 2,000 sutra fascicles, plus statues of the Ashikaga shoguns. It was designated in 1984.

Bannaji Shōrō in Ashikaga is a late Kamakura belfry with a flared boarded skirt and an open bell chamber. Listed in 1908, it holds an Edo-period Tenmyō bell.

The Furukawa Bridge at Ashio, Nikko, is a German-made steel truss of 1890, bolted together for the copper mine and the oldest of its make still in place in Japan.

An Important Cultural Property in Nasu, Tochigi: home of the Mimori family of village headmen, with a thatched 1733 main house and a long front gatehouse.

The main hall of Murahi Shrine in Tochigi is a late Muromachi kasuga-style hall of three bays under cypress bark, at a shrine linked to Fujiwara no Hidesato.

The three Kondōsō Mikoshi (Gilt Bronze-Decorated Portable Shrines) preserved at the Treasure House of Nikko Futarasan Shrine Chūgūshi in Tochigi Prefecture are 14th-century Nanbokuchō-period masterpieces designated as Important Cultural Properties of Japan. With their bold Bandō-style craftsmanship and exquisite gilt bronze ornaments, they are still carried in procession each spring during the Yayoi Festival.

Discover the Sankozuka-ken at Nikko Futarasan Shrine, an Important Cultural Property pairing a Heian-period blade with a late-Kamakura bronze hilt shaped like an esoteric Buddhist three-pronged vajra. One of very few such ritual swords surviving with both blade and hilt intact, it embodies the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism in medieval Nikko, displayed at the Treasure Hall by Lake Chuzenji.

Tochigi’s registered properties across designations, with featured heritage and travel notes.

The complete kokuhō catalogue — browse by prefecture, period, and category.

Nationwide jūyō bunkazai — architecture, sculpture, painting, crafts, and documents.