Best Architecture Spot List

The main training center for Shingon Esoteric Buddhism with its iconic five-story pagoda, the key landmark of Kyoto's scenery. The temple is known as ”Daishi's temple.”

One of the last temples to prohibit entry to women

Famous for the bell that angered Ieyasu

This Buddhist school was established by the Chinese monk Jianzhen

A crimson tower glistening in the ocean and sky

Magnificent views await at the end of the 1,015-step climb

Yamate 234 Ban-Kan, or the Yamate #234 Residence, is a Western-style mansion that served as an apartment building for foreign residents. The panel exhibits displayed on the first floor tell the history of the building.

A museum where you can learn about the history of Yokohama Port and Nippon maru, a sail boat sitting in dock No.1 which is available for an interior tour.

Occasionally open seasonally for cherry blossom, azalea, and fall leaves viewing

Where the guardian buck and doe are enshrined

The nation’s head Koyasan Shingon-shu temple

The head temple of the Rinzai sect, known as the highest-ranked Zen temple in Japan.

A shrine to visit for breaking bad habits or starting good ones

Beloved Buddha artifacts inside the school of Heijo Palace

Flowers blossom throughout the seasons at this temple, also known as “The Flower Temple”

A historical shrine with a solemn atmosphere built in Gongen-zukuri (style of Shinto architecture in which the main hall and worship hall share one roof). It is designated as National Important Cultural Property. Late April is the best period to see the Azaleas on the premises.

A shrine affiliated with boars and protection for the lower body

A stock exchange that offers tours. It is a symbol of Japanese economy where an estimated 61,000 people visit annually.

This is a temple erected at the wish of Keishoin, the real mother of Shogun Tsunayoshi Tokugawa. The main hall, remaining in its original state from the Genroku period, has been designated as a National Important Cultural Property.

This is a shrine founded on the vast premises surrounded by the mountains of Nikko. It is familiar to people as the god of luck and marital matchmaking.