Meiji

Discover the Former Yamagata Normal School Main Building, an Important Cultural Property in Yamagata City. Built in 1901 in Renaissance style, this elegant wooden structure now serves as an education museum showcasing Japan's educational history from the Edo period to modern times.

Discover the Former Yonezawa Higher Technical School Main Building, an Important Cultural Property in Yonezawa, Yamagata. This stunning Renaissance-style wooden building from 1910 is the birthplace of Japan's rayon industry and a hidden gem of Meiji-era architecture.

Discover the Tsuruoka Catholic Church in Yamagata Prefecture, an Important Cultural Property built in 1903. Explore its Romanesque architecture, unique window paintings, and Japan's only Black Madonna statue in this fusion of Western and Japanese heritage.

Discover the Former Tsuruoka Police Station, a striking blue giyofu-style building from 1884, now preserved at the Chido Museum in Tsuruoka, Yamagata. Learn about its unique blend of Western and Japanese architectural design, its fascinating history, and how to visit.

Discover the Former Nishitagawa County Office, an Important Cultural Property in Tsuruoka, Yamagata. This 1881 quasi-Western building features a 20-meter clock tower, Renaissance-style suspended staircase, and fascinating Meiji-era exhibits at the Chido Museum.

Discover the Ichishima Family Residence Storehouse, a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Yamagata City's historic Nanokamachi district. This traditional two-story plastered earthen storehouse and the adjacent 1927 reinforced concrete shop building preserve the legacy of an Edo-period gunpowder merchant family.

The Former Yamadera Hotel is a Meiji-era wooden inn and Registered Tangible Cultural Property located at the gateway to Risshakuji Temple (Yamadera) in Yamagata City. Tracing its origins to the Edo-period inn Nakashimaya, the building evolved through the Taisho and Showa eras with the arrival of the Senzan railway line. Now open to the public as Yamagata Retro Hall, it features a karahafu-style entrance, early Showa geometric design, Yuki Taisaku pen drawings, and stunning views of the temple from its grand second-floor hall — all free of charge.

Discover Sanno Club, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Sakata, Yamagata. Built in 1895, this former high-class ryotei now houses exhibits on Kitamae-bune maritime trade, Kasafuku hanging ornaments, and the art of Yumeji Takehisa.

A Registered Tangible Cultural Property at Zenpoji in Yamagata, built by fishing communities as Japan's only pagoda memorializing the fish taken from the sea.

A Registered Tangible Cultural Property at Zenpoji in Yamagata, a quiet hall keeping the temple's earlier name and holding a cloud-and-dragon ceiling painting.

Built in 1898, this three-story wooden inn near JR Yonezawa Station blends Japanese irimoya roofing with Western arched windows and Zen-inspired katōmado openings, earning the nickname 'Dragon Palace of Yonezawa.' Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it still operates as a hotel where guests can sleep amid raden inlay, Yakusugi cedar ceilings, and over a century of hospitality tradition.

Maizuru Bridge is a stone single-arch bridge built in 1886 spanning the moat of Yonezawa Castle in Yamagata Prefecture. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, it serves as the main approach to Uesugi Shrine and is affectionately known as 'Megane-bashi' (Spectacles Bridge). Its unusually wide deck, tuff stone balustrades, and natural boulder-topped pillars make it a distinctive example of Meiji-era bridge architecture.

Built around 1875 in earthen storehouse construction, the Kannon-do at Ryuto-ji sits below Mount Chokai, its front beam carved with a dragon for the temple's name.

Built in 1909 in Iide, Yamagata, the Watanabe Rokurobei nagayamon is a two-storey plastered gatehouse with a brick base and a coffered ceiling over its passage.