Edo

Discover the National Treasure "Autumn Pasture with Cattle" (Akino Bokugyu-zu), a masterpiece of Southern Song Chinese painting attributed to court artist Yan Ciping. Housed at the Sen-oku Hakukokan Museum in Roppongi, Tokyo, this exquisite silk scroll once belonged to the Ashikaga Shogun's famed Higashiyama Collection.

This National Treasure colophon by Yuan literatus Feng Zizhen praises a lost insect scroll by Song painter Yi Yuanji. Sen no Rikyu's letter saved it from being cut.

The Main Hall of Gokokuji Temple in Tokyo's Bunkyo Ward is the central building of a prayer temple commissioned in 1697 by the fifth Tokugawa shogun Tsunayoshi at the request of his mother Keishoin. With its seven-bay-square plan, sweeping irimoya roof, and refined fusion of Japanese wayo and Chinese-influenced karayo styles, this Genroku-era masterpiece is the only original main hall of a major head temple to have survived in central Tokyo from the Edo period. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1931, it offers visitors a rare encounter with the architectural ambition of late seventeenth-century Edo.

The Kobayashi Family Residence, a thatched farmhouse at 750 meters on a ridge in Hinohara, west Tokyo, was built in the early 1700s and is reached by monorail.

Nitenmon Gate at Sensoji Temple in Taito, Tokyo, is one of the few surviving examples of early Edo-period wooden architecture in central Tokyo. Built around 1649 and designated as a National Important Cultural Property, this striking vermilion gate originally served as the entrance to a Toshogu Shrine within the Sensoji precinct. Transformed through the Meiji-era separation of Shinto and Buddhism, it now houses guardian statues of Jikokuten and Zochoten. Fully restored in 2010, the gate offers visitors a rare glimpse into 17th-century Japanese craftsmanship.

Discover the Arai Family Residence Inner Storehouse (Uchigura) in Chofu, Tokyo — a nationally registered tangible cultural property dating from the late Edo period. Explore this rare surviving example of traditional Musashino farmstead architecture surrounded by historic estate woodland.

Mitake Shrine Suigyodo in Ota Ward, Tokyo, is a rare 1867 ablution hall used by Kiso Ontake mountain ascetics. Discover dragon carvings, a sacred well, and a quiet pocket of Edo-period faith just two minutes from Ontakesan Station.

For two months in 1868 the last shogun, Tokugawa Yoshinobu, confined himself in this modest shoin at Kan'eiji, the room where Tokugawa rule quietly ended.

Discover Gallery ef Kura, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Asakusa, Tokyo. Built in 1868 as a timber merchant's storehouse, this remarkable dozo survived the Great Kanto Earthquake and WWII air raids, later reborn as an art gallery and cultural exchange space.

In Ome, Tokyo, the storehouse of Sōshidō dates to 1847, the oldest on the grounds. Its ridge tag names it the wind-gate storehouse, set at the southeast corner.

In Ome, Tokyo, the nagayamon gate of Sōshidō is a late-Edo farmhouse entrance. Its wings sheltered wartime evacuees; later Yoshikawa Eiji used them to store books.

The Shimoda Residence in Nishitokyo housed Tanashi's hereditary headmen. A late-Edo, copper-roofed timber farmhouse, it is the city's oldest, registered in 2019.

Janoyu Onsen Takaraso, a Registered Cultural Property in Hinohara, is Tokyo's only secluded hot-spring inn: a thatched late-Edo farmhouse with a kabuto-shaped roof.

Discover Joshoin Hondo Naijin in Tokyo's Shiba Park—a 1769 Edo-period inner sanctuary, registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, that miraculously survived the Great Kanto Earthquake and Tokyo air raids. Once the family temple of the famed Ichikawa Danjuro kabuki dynasty.

At the foot of Tokyo Tower stands the 1743 vermilion front gate of Shinkō-in, a branch of the Tokugawa temple Zōjō-ji, registered as a Cultural Property in 2001.

The Jizō-dō at Yūtenji Temple in Meguro, Tokyo, is a nationally registered tangible cultural property dating from the late 18th century. Its extraordinary ceiling paintings of Edo-era firefighter matoi standards, combined with refined Buddhist architectural details, make it a unique cultural treasure. Discover the fascinating story of faith, firefighting heritage, and Edo craftsmanship in the heart of trendy Nakameguro.

Discover the Jizodo-mon Gate at Yutenji Temple in Meguro, Tokyo—a Registered Tangible Cultural Property featuring unique ceiling carvings of Edo firefighter matoi standards. Explore its history, architecture, and deep connection to the machi-bikeshi tradition.

Made in 1639 for Chiyohime, the shogun's two-year-old daughter, this 70-piece trousseau glitters with gold maki-e from The Tale of Genji. A National Treasure.

Discover Tawaraya Sōtatsu's masterpiece of Japanese ink painting, "Lotus Pond and Waterfowl" (Renchi Suikin-zu), held by the Kyoto National Museum. This National Treasure hanging scroll, painted in the early Edo period in ink alone, quietly sets two lotus stems and two little grebes in dialogue to evoke the passage of a summer. This guide introduces the painting's artistic value, the reasons for its designation, its highlights, and the surrounding sights of Kyoto's Higashiyama district.

A Southern Song celadon vase of shimokabura form, a Japanese National Treasure with a smooth, crackle-free pale-blue glaze. Its kiln is still debated by scholars.