Meiji

A 1.5-metre kitchen gate of about 1907 with sliding board doors, a lamp hung between lintel and ridge beam, and moulded brackets facing a Ueno back lane.

A two-metre bracket gate of about 1907, gabled and tiled, with a lattice window above the opening, chamfered timbers, and a black-plastered wing wall in Ueno.

This 25-square-metre kura of about 1907 looks like stone but is brick over a timber frame, rendered and scored with false joints. Its ground floor held the altar.

Built in 1907 as a Nihonbashi cloth wholesaler's retirement house, this timber home in Ueno Sakuragi appeared in a Meiji plan book and was registered in 2005.

A 1909 wooden library designed by Ministry of Education architect Kuru Masamichi for Gakushuin's Mejiro campus. Registered in 2009, the L-shaped building is rare for its American Stick Style cladding and brackets carved with the school's sakura crest.

The main house of the Kawai Residence in Tama City, Tokyo, is an 1885 thatched farmhouse carrying two tiers of silkworm rooms inside its high roof space.

Kan'eiji's main hall was moved from Kita-in in Kawagoe in 1879, after the first burned in the 1868 Battle of Ueno. A seven-bay Tendai hall, it holds a hidden Yakushi.

Said to mark the seventeenth memorial of his first wife, this 1898 hall belongs to Shibusawa Eiichi, father of Japanese capitalism. Fine carvings fill its interior.

A timber kura of c.1884 in Higashiyamato, Tokyo, later rendered to mimic cut stone. Its oki-yane roof, iron fire doors, and the atelier Yoshioka Kenji never built.

A mid-Meiji farmhouse in Higashiyamato, Tokyo, that the painter Yoshioka Kenji reshaped over 46 years: a 35.5 cm pillar, kumiko transoms, an earth-floor atelier.

In Ome, Tokyo, the main house of Sōshidō is a Meiji silk-farm dwelling that the novelist Yoshikawa Eiji redesigned himself around 1948, writing beside its garden.

In Ome, Tokyo, the Western annex of Sōshidō held Yoshikawa Eiji's study. Built in late Meiji, it gathers materials from across Japan, from Seto tile to Ōya stone.

Kyoshoji Temple Guest Hall in Ikenohata, Tokyo, is a 1903 two-storey timber building whose wide east corridor was placed to command the view over Shinobazu Pond.

The Shimoda Residence Bunko-gura in Nishitokyo, Tokyo, is a small Meiji-era earthen storehouse kept by a family of hereditary village headmen and registered in 2019.

Tucked inside Shirayuri University's wooded campus in suburban Tokyo, Megumi-so is a remarkable early-Meiji farmhouse with a triple life: originally the main hall of the Kikuchi family — hereditary village headmen in Izu Shuzenji — it was relocated to Tokyo in 1930 and moved again within the campus in 1967. Registered as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2014, the building preserves a massive central pillar, a classic six-room plan, and traces of a ceremonial stepped entrance. This guide explains its history, architectural highlights, and how to visit during its annual public opening.

In Yanaka, Taito City, this late-Meiji timber shop became a signboard building. Registered in 2023, it still bakes rice crackers over a sunken charcoal kiln.

Built in 1903, this small brick observatory has an octagonal ground floor, a circular upper floor and a rotating dome that once held an equatorial telescope.

Built in 1903, this single-story brick observatory has an octagonal plan and a pyramidal roof, and once held a meridian instrument for keeping precise time.

Built in 1909 as a fisheries training ship, Unyo Maru is the oldest surviving steel vessel made in Japan. Registered in 1998, her upper hull stands ashore in Tokyo.

Completed in 1912 at Hongo and registered in 1998, this gate follows the kabukimon form. Ito Chuta clad steel posts in granite and worked waves into the iron doors.