Important Cultural Property of Tokyo

A 1927 steel and concrete department store in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, an Important Cultural Property since 2016, with a classical facade and an Art Deco atrium.

A late Edo farmhouse in Ome, Tokyo, an Important Cultural Property since 1978. Moved from the Nariki hills, it keeps a cedar-bark and thatch roof. Free entry.

The iron gate of Myohoji in Suginami, Tokyo, cast in 1878 by the Ministry of Public Works, blends Japanese and Western design with a phoenix and acanthus doors.

The Imbrie House at Meiji Gakuin in Tokyo, a missionary home of about 1889 where William Imbrie lived from 1897 to 1922, mixes post-and-beam and balloon framing.

Meiji Seimeikan in Marunouchi, completed 1934, was the first Showa-era building listed as an Important Cultural Property. Its Corinthian colonnade faces the moat.

Built at Glasgow in 1874, the Meiji Maru is the only iron ship left in Japan and the first vessel listed as an Important Cultural Property. Entry is free.

Raised in 1717 for the seventh shogun Tokugawa Ietsugu, this vermilion gate is all that survives of the last Tokugawa mausoleum, the rest lost in wartime raids.

Built for the 1964 Tokyo Olympics and made an Important Cultural Property in 2021, Yoyogi National Stadium hangs its roof from cables slung between two 40m masts.

Discover the Important Cultural Property 'Poetry Paper by Fujiwara no Kintsune' at the Tokugawa Art Museum in Nagoya. This Kamakura-period calligraphic masterpiece features a waka poem on the theme 'Flowers Have the Color of Joy,' handwritten by one of medieval Japan's most powerful courtiers and a celebrated poet of the Hyakunin Isshu. Learn about kaishi art, Kintsune's legacy, and visitor information.

Held at The Railway Museum in Saitama, the Tetsudō Komonjo (Railway Archives) is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property comprising 91 volumes of administrative records spanning 1870 to 1893. These foundational documents reveal how Japan built its first railways — surveys, land deals, British equipment, regulations, even uniforms. Survivors of the 1923 earthquake and WWII evacuation, they offer a rare window into Meiji modernization.

An Important Cultural Property film recording Onoe Matsunosuke—Japan's first movie star—performing the iconic "Farewell at Sakurai" before the future Emperor Shōwa at Japan's first motion picture exhibition in 1921. Only the second film ever designated nationally; a digitally restored version is freely available online, with related exhibits at the National Film Archive of Japan in Kyobashi, Tokyo.

Filmed in November 1899 behind Tokyo's Kabuki-za theatre, Momijigari is the oldest surviving film made by a Japanese cinematographer and the only moving record of two of the Meiji era's greatest kabuki actors, Ichikawa Danjūrō IX and Onoe Kikugorō V. In 2009 it became the first film of any kind to be designated a Japanese Important Cultural Property. This guide explains how the film came to be made, why it matters, and how international visitors can engage with it today through the National Film Archive of Japan in Kyobashi, Tokyo.

Letters, diaries and effects of Meiji statesman Okubo Toshimichi, 3,053 items at the National Museum of Japanese History, an Important Cultural Property since 2004.

Discover the Important Cultural Property tsuba (sword guard) known as the 'Hand Guard with the Motif of a Fierce Tiger in the Rain' (signed Toshinaga, with kao), housed at the Tokyo National Museum. Created by Nara Toshinaga, the foremost master of the Nara school of mid-Edo period sword-fitting artisans, this 7.4 cm iron tsuba captures a tiger crouched in a storm — a dramatic miniature scene executed in high-relief carving, gold and silver inlay, openwork, and hairline engraving. Learn about the work's artistry and visit one of Tokyo's most extraordinary museum districts in Ueno.

Held at Eisei Bunko in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward, the Important Cultural Property Kasugano-zu Tsuba — signed by Kaneie of Fushimi, founder of pictorial-style sword guards — is one of the masterworks of Momoyama-period Japanese metalwork. On a thin iron disk, the celebrated Plain of Kasuga in Nara unfolds in deep relief with whisper-soft gold and silver inlay. This guide introduces the work, its enigmatic maker, and the Hosokawa-family museum that preserves it, with practical visitor information.

Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1980, this 15th-century domaru armor at the Tokyo National Museum is a rare survival in which the cuirass, helmet, and large shoulder guards remain together as one original ensemble. Its distinctive katatsumadori lacing combined with the omodaka (water plantain) motif represents the artistic peak of Muromachi-period armor making.

A Southern Song tea caddy at the Nezu Museum, an Important Cultural Property since 1959, handed down from Ashikaga Yoshimasa to the Matsuya family of Nara.

Yokoyama Taikan's 1923 ink handscroll, over 40 metres long, following water from mountain mist to the sea, an Important Cultural Property held by MOMAT in Tokyo.

Discover the Shōban Zanketsu (Shokkō-kin), a pair of Asuka-period banner fragments held at the Tokyo National Museum's Gallery of Hōryū-ji Treasures. Designated an Important Cultural Property, these warp-faced compound weave brocades, woven in vibrant red with pearl roundels of lions, phoenixes, celestial horses and stags, are among the oldest surviving silk textiles in the world. A 1,300-year-old testament to Silk Road exchange between Tang-dynasty Shu (Sichuan) and ancient Japan.

The autograph diary of the Kofukuji abbot Jinken, 1562 to 1577, at the National Archives of Japan, an Important Cultural Property since 2011.