Important Cultural Property in Japan

Shrine

Shirahige Shrine

A shrine on the western shore of Lake Biwa with a torii standing in the water, dedicated to Sarutahiko and known as a shrine of long life.

Takashima · Shiga

Museum

Kamihaga Residence (Wax Museum)

The house and works of a wax-making family in Uchiko, Ehime, kept with its boiling sheds and stores, and now a museum of the trade.

Uchiko · Ehime

Temple

Nishiyama Koryuji

A mountain temple in Saijo, Ehime, founded in 642, reached by a long approach under maples, with a main hall that is an Important Cultural Property.

Saijo · Ehime

Shrine

Shirahige Shrine

A shrine on the western shore of Lake Biwa with a torii standing in the water, dedicated to Sarutahiko and known as a shrine of long life.

Takashima · Shiga

Museum

Kamihaga Residence (Wax Museum)

The house and works of a wax-making family in Uchiko, Ehime, kept with its boiling sheds and stores, and now a museum of the trade.

Uchiko · Ehime

Temple

Nishiyama Koryuji

A mountain temple in Saijo, Ehime, founded in 642, reached by a long approach under maples, with a main hall that is an Important Cultural Property.

Saijo · Ehime

Area & Points of Interest

Yokaichi and Gokoku Historical District

A street of wax merchants' houses in Uchiko, Ehime, with walls in a yellow plaster made from local earth, preserved since 1982.

Uchiko · Ehime

Temple

Iwayaji Temple

The forty-fifth temple of the Shikoku pilgrimage, built against cliffs in the mountains of Ehime, where the mountain itself is the object of worship.

Kumakogen · Ehime

Historic Site

Glover Garden

A hillside park in Nagasaki holding the Western houses of the foreign settlement, among them the oldest wooden Western building in Japan.

Nagasaki

Temple

Sofukuji Temple

A Chinese temple in Nagasaki founded in 1629 by merchants from Fujian, with two buildings that are National Treasures.

Nagasaki

Onsen & Wellness

Takeo Onsen

A hot spring town in Saga with 1,300 years behind it, a wooden bathhouse of 1876 and a gate that is an Important Cultural Property.

Takeo · Saga

Museum

Irifuneyama Memorial Museum

The restored 1905 residence of the commander of the Kure naval district, with rare gilded leather paper on its walls, and a naval arsenal clock tower.

Kure · Hiroshima

Shrine

Hinomisaki Shrine

Two shrines on one site at the western tip of the Shimane Peninsula, rebuilt in the 1630s and holding a National Treasure suit of armour.

Izumo · Shimane

Shrine

Kumano Taisha Shrine

One of three major Kumano shrines in Japan, Kumano Taisha was established in 806 and is known as the Ise Shrine of the North for its significance.

Nanyo · Yamagata

Onsen & Wellness

Dogo Onsen

One of Japan's oldest hot springs, in Matsuyama, centred on the historic Honkan bathhouse – with free-flowing waters and three baths to try.

Matsuyama · Ehime

Shrine

Itsukushima Shrine

The floating shrine of Miyajima, built out over a tidal cove, with its great vermilion torii standing in the sea off the sacred island.

Hatsukaichi · Hiroshima

Castle

Kakegawa Castle

Kakegawa Castle served as a strategic fortress for the Tokugawa vassal clans along the Tokaido highway connecting Kyoto and eastern Japan.

Kakegawa · Shizuoka

Shrine

Takeda Shrine

This shrine honors Takeda Shingen, a Sengoku-period general remembered for both military prowess and regional development in the domain he ruled.

Kofu · Yamanashi

Temple

Zuiryuji Temple

A 17th-century Soto-school Buddhist temple in Takaoka houses several buildings designated as national treasures and important cultural properties.

Takaoka · Toyama

Shrine

Bitchukoku Soja Shrine

Bitchukoku Soja Shrine consolidated deities of 324 provincial shrines into a single site dedicated to the deity of nation-building and good fortune.

Soja · Okayama

Temple

Tofukuji Temple

Tofukuji is one of Kyoto's great Zen temples, celebrated for its sweeping maple valley and the modern garden surrounding the abbot's quarters.

Kyoto

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