Registered Tangible Cultural Properties of Yamaguchi

Onoda Cement Yamate Club in Sanyo-Onoda City, Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1914. Built from concrete blocks manufactured on-site using molds that company president Kasai Shinzo personally brought back from England, the two-story mansion combines Japanese Edo-kiri stone-dressing techniques with Roman-inspired Tuscan columns. It stands as a rare survivor of early Taisho-period block construction and a monument to Japan's first private cement company.

The Kase Tunnel in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a stone road tunnel cut through the Kasega-saka Pass during the Meiji era. Construction began in 1883 and was completed in 1886. With a length of about 182 metres, a width of about 4.2 metres, and a height of about 3.9 metres, its andesite ashlar interior still preserves the atmosphere of early modern Japan. Recorded as the first Western-style stone road tunnel in Yamaguchi Prefecture and built as a symbol of Hagi's hopes for revival after the prefectural seat moved to Yamaguchi, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1999.

Discover the Former Iwakuni Tax Office (Kyū Iwakuni Zeimusho), a 1925 Renaissance-style Western building and Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The only surviving pre-war tax office in the prefecture, now owned by a sake brewery.

Discover the Former Nomura Family Residence, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Yamaguchi City. Built in 1886 as a sake brewery, this beautifully preserved machiya now serves as the Manabi-kan museum, showcasing Ouchi lacquerware, Hagi pottery, and the traditional crafts of Japan's "Western Kyoto."

Discover the Former Nomura Family Residence Storehouse, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Yamaguchi City. This Meiji-era "nisan-no-kura" storehouse stands within the Yamaguchi Furusato Densho Center, offering a glimpse into the traditional sake-brewing heritage of western Honshu.

Kinunkaku is a tower-style ema hall (votive tablet hall) built in 1885 within Kikko Park in Iwakuni City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. Designed to resemble a feudal-era turret, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan stands gracefully at the edge of the old castle moat. Together with the iconic Kintai Bridge and Iwakuni Castle, it forms one of the most picturesque historical landscapes in western Japan.

The Kuniyasu Family Residence in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built around 1850 as the headquarters of Matsukane-ya, a prosperous pomade oil merchant. This impressive two-story plastered townhouse features rare lattice insect-cage windows and grand exposed-beam interiors. Now open free as the Honke Matsugane tourism center, visitors can explore Edo-period architecture, sample local sake, and try on samurai armor — all just a 3-minute walk from the iconic Kintai Bridge.

Creative Space Akarenga in Yamaguchi City is a red brick building constructed in 1918 as a book storage for the Yamaguchi Prefectural Library. Saved from demolition by a citizen preservation movement, it was reborn as a cultural venue in 1992 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 1998. Featuring English bond brickwork and a harpsichord celebrating Yamaguchi's ties to Xavier and Western music, it hosts art exhibitions, concerts, and community events.

The Somon of Kozanji Temple in the historic castle town of Chofu, Shimonoseki, is a Zen-style four-legged gate preserving mid-Muromachi period structural elements. Registered as a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2004, it stands as the formal entrance to a temple compound housing a National Treasure and bearing witness to centuries of dramatic history.

Sansuien Main Building is a nationally registered tangible cultural property hot spring inn in Yuda Onsen, Yamaguchi City. Originally built as a Taisho-era villa and later expanded by renowned Kyoto sukiya master Fuefuki Kaichiro, the inn features the imperial Anzaikaku wing, three styles of Japanese garden, and 100% free-flowing natural hot springs from three private sources.

Sami Bridge in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a single-arch stone bridge completed in 1914 during the Taisho era and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Known locally as Megane-bashi (Spectacles Bridge), its 16.4-meter arch span makes it one of the largest stone bridges in Yamaguchi — a rare and precious artifact from the transitional era between stone and concrete construction.

JR Nishi-Iwakuni Station, opened in 1929 as Iwakuni Station on the Gantoku Line, is a Western-style wooden station building featuring a striking five-arch entrance portico inspired by the nearby Kintaikyo Bridge and an Expressionist-style gable. Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2006, it now serves as both an active railway station and a community exchange facility.

Completed in 1926 as a naval fuel depot director's residence, this 36-square-metre Shunan wing keeps a coved coffered reception room behind a half-timbered gable.

This 238-square-metre wing of a 1926 naval residence in Shunan retains its ten-mat shoin rooms, carved transoms and a long veranda beam left as a round log.

A two-storey timber pavilion of 1873 at Hofu Tenmangu, its floor carried on brackets cut for a five-storey pagoda that was never raised. Registered in 2012.

Raised in 1888 to guard silk from fire and damp, this two-storey plaster storehouse in Hofu has an unusual frame of octagonal beams and now hosts a concert series.

Built in 1918 by Kyoto carpenters for a Hofu kimono merchant, this registered house shifts between tea-room informality and a formal 12.5-mat reception room.

One plastered shell split by a cross wall: food kept to the south, tools to the north under a second floor. Built around 1888, it fronts a Hofu merchant compound.

The gate of Zuishoan, a Soto Zen temple in Ube: thatched, single-bay, built in 1937, with a Zen balustrade above and the Shimazu crest carved twice. Registered 2021.

Built in 1886 as a stopgap home for Iwakuni's former daimyo, this two-storey house sets a thirty-mat upper hall to borrow the Kintaikyo bridge and castle hill.