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 Former Aoki Family Nasu Villa in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, is a German-style Western residence built by Meiji-era Foreign Minister Aoki Shūzō and designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Designed by Matsugasaki Tsumunaga — whose twelve years of architectural study in Germany produced this sole surviving work in Japan — the villa features distinctive fish-scale slate walls and authentic German timber-frame construction. It stands as a rare testament to the pioneering development of the Nasunogahara plain and the lives of the Meiji statesmen who shaped modern Japan.

Discover the Important Cultural Property front gate of Entsuji Temple in Mashiko, Tochigi — a bold Muromachi-period four-legged gate with exquisite Chinese-style carvings, standing at the historic headquarters of the Nagoe branch of Jodo Buddhism.

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.

Furukawa Bridge, spanning the Matsuki River in Ashio, Nikko City, Tochigi Prefecture, is a steel truss bridge completed in 1890 using components manufactured by Germany's Harkort Company. Designated as a nationally Important Cultural Property, it is the oldest surviving Harkort-made bridge in Japan remaining in its original location, embodying the rapid modernization of the Ashio Copper Mine and Japan's bridge engineering history.

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.

Murahi Shrine in Tochigi City dates back to 646 CE and is one of only twelve Engishiki-listed shrines in Tochigi Prefecture. Its main hall, built in 1553, features the rare sangensha-kasuga-zukuri style with a cypress bark roof — unique in the prefecture — and is designated a national Important Cultural Property for its exquisite Muromachi-period carvings and distinctive bracket complexes.

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.