Meiji

Built in 1898, Japan's only surviving Japanese-style prefectural assembly hall hides a Western truss above its plaster-walled chamber. Restored at Negoro, Iwade.

The Izumi Family Residence Zashiki in Hirogawa Town, Wakayama Prefecture, is a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1904. Built by the eighth-generation head of the Izumi maritime merchant family, this elegant guest hall features exceptional craftsmanship and high-quality materials, with its white plastered gable walls contributing to the historic Hiro district townscape. It is a constituent cultural property of the Japan Heritage site 'Hyakusei no Ando.'

At the western edge of the Ueda estate in Hashimoto, Wakayama, this late-Meiji detached parlour holds three eight-mat guest rooms, raised on walls of Kishu blue stone.

Discover the Former Katsuragi-kan (Kyū Katsuragi-kan), a striking three-story wooden inn built in the late Meiji period at JR Kōyaguchi Station in Wakayama Prefecture. Now a Registered Tangible Cultural Property and charming café, this architectural gem blends temple-style roofing with full-glass façades.

The Former Kanda Family Villa (Toson-tei) in Kushimoto, Wakayama Prefecture, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1874. Constructed from a massive cedar log that drifted ashore — a gift of gratitude from a fisherman saved during a famine — this heritage building now operates as part of NIPPONIA HOTEL Kushimoto Kumano Kaido, offering guests an immersive stay within living history.

On Okinoshima above the Kitan Strait, an 1872 stone lighthouse by British engineer Richard Henry Brunton. One of Japan's earliest Western-style beacons, still in service.

A south-facing early Meiji farmhouse in Nanayama, Kainan, once thatched and now tiled: a timber single-storey house with a doma and a four-room plan. Private home.

Discover the Former Chapel of Nippon Sei Ko Kai Hashimoto Christ Church in Wakayama Prefecture, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property where an early Meiji-era farmhouse from Yoshino was transformed into an Anglican chapel. Explore this rare fusion of Japanese vernacular architecture and Christian heritage near the gateway to Mount Koya.

The Hashimoto new drawing room in Gobo is a small two-story timber reception house, said to have been built for a bride's arrival around 1912. Registered 2020.

Hatsuzakura's later-Meiji igura adjoins its brewing hall, the two forming a long wall that preserves the streetscape of Katsuragi's once-thriving sake trade.

Hatsuzakura's early-Meiji shikomi-gura runs sixteen bays north to south, the oldest and largest of its halls and still the working heart of a brewing town.

In Susami, Wakayama, the Fukuda Family Residence Main Gate is a single-bay udegimon of about 1909, standing atop a castle-like stone wall. Now registered.

In Iwade, Wakayama, the mid-Meiji Fukuda Family Residence Earthen Wall runs about 41.5 m over precise stone footings with a washed-aggregate face. Now registered.

In Susami, Wakayama, the Fukuda Family Residence Barn of 1878 is the estate's oldest building, a part-two-story timber structure with lean-to eaves. Now registered.

In Susami, Wakayama, the Fukuda Family Residence Detached Room of 1903 is a six-mat guest room with a tokonoma, reached by a covered passage. Now registered.

The Misoya Bekkan Upper Storehouse and Detached Guest Room in Hashimoto City, Wakayama, is a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in the mid-Meiji period. Standing on the grounds of Misoya Kimono Shop, founded in 1495, this distinctive single-structure building combines a fireproof storehouse with a formal reception room, preserving the refined merchant culture of a historic post town on the pilgrimage route to Mount Koya.

Discover Misoya Bekkan Main House, a registered tangible cultural property in Hashimoto, Wakayama. Built in 1884 along the historic Koya-kaido pilgrimage road to Mount Koya, this elegant Meiji-era merchant townhouse preserves the atmosphere of a thriving post town.

A roadside wall of about 1906 of greenish Wakayama blue stone laid as random rubble, over 18 metres long and about 1.8 metres high, finished with a shaped coping.

A small armed-bracket gate of about 1906, barely a metre wide, leading from the living quarters to the reception garden under a gabled roof of Wakayama round tiles.