To protect Japan's cultural heritage, the country's government selects through the Agency for Cultural Affairs important items and designates them as Cultural Properties under the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties. Designated items are classified in a number of categories, one of which is Monuments (記念物, kinenbutsu). This category includes historic locations such as shell mounds, ancient tombs, sites of palaces, sites of forts or castles, monumental dwelling houses and other sites of high historical or scientific value; gardens, bridges, gorges, mountains, and other places of great scenic beauty; and natural features such as animals, plants, and geological or mineral formations of high scientific value.
The government further designates "significant" monuments classifying them in three categories: Historic Sites (史跡, shiseki), Places of Scenic Beauty (名勝, meishō), and Natural Monuments (天然記念物, tennen kinenbutsu). Items of particularly high significance receive higher classifications: Special Historic Sites (特別史跡, tokubetsu shiseki), Special Places of Scenic Beauty (特別名勝, tokubetsu meishō), and Special Natural Monuments (特別天然記念物, tokubetsu tennen kinenbutsu) respectively. As of October 24, 2023 there are 1,040 Natural Monuments, 1895 Historic Sites, 429 Places of Scenic Beauty, 75 Special Natural Monuments, 36 Special Places of Scenic Beauty and 63 Special Historic Sites.
Since a single item can fall under more than one of these categories, the total number of sites is less than the sum of designations.
Criteria
The Agency for Cultural Affairs designates monuments based on a number of criteria. A monument can be designated based on more than one of these criteria:
Places of Scenic Beauty and Special Places of Scenic Beauty
- Parks and gardens
- Bridges and embankments
- Flowering trees, flowering grass, autumn colors, green trees and other places of dense growth
- Places inhabited by birds and wild animals, fish/insects and others
- Rocks, caves
- Ravines, gorges, waterfalls, mountain streams, abysses
- Lakes, marshes, wetlands, floating islands, springs
- Sand dunes, spits, seasides, islands
- Volcanoes, onsen
- Mountains, hills, plateaus, plains, rivers
- Viewpoints
Historic Sites and Special Historic Sites
- Shell mounds, settlement ruins, kofun, other historic ruins of this type
- Ruins of fortified towns, castles, government administration offices, old battlefields and other historic ruins related to politics or government
- Remains of shrines and temples, former compound grounds and other historic ruins related to religion
- Schools, research institutions, cultural facilities and other historic ruins related to education, learning or culture
- Medical care and welfare facilities, life related institution, other society and life related historic ruins
- Transport and communication facilities, forest conservation and flood control facilities, manufacture facilities and other historic sites related to finance or manufacture activities
- Graves and stone monuments with inscriptions
- Former residences, gardens, ponds and other areas of particular historical significance
- Ruins related to foreign countries or foreigners
Natural Monuments and Special Natural Monuments
- Animals
- Well-known animals peculiar to Japan and their habitat
- Animals which are not peculiar to Japan, but need to be preserved as well-known characteristic Japanese animals, and their habitat
- Animals or animal groups peculiar to Japan within their natural environment
- Domestic animals peculiar to Japan
- Well-known imported animals presently in a wild state, with the exception of domestic animals; their habitat
- Particularly valuable animal specimen
- Plants, vegetation
- Old trees of historic interest, gigantic trees, old trees, deformed trees, cultivated pulpwood, roadside trees, shrine forests
- Representative primeval forests, rare forest flora
- Representative alpine plants, special clusters of plants on rock ground
- Representative clusters of waste land plants
- Representative examples of coastal and sand ground vegetation
- Representative examples of areas of peat forming plants
- Clusters of plants growing in caves or grottoes
- Rare water plants in garden ponds, onsen, lakes, marshes, streams, sea, etc.; algae, moss, microbes, etc.
- Remarkable occurrence of epiphytic plants on rocks, trees or shrubs
- Remarkable plant growth on marginal land
- Remarkable growth in the wild of crop plants
- Wild habitat of rare or near extinct plants
- Geological and mineralogical features
- Rocks, mineral and fossil producing sites
- Conformable and unconformable strata
- Fold and thrust strata
- Geological features caused by the work of living creatures
- Phenomena related to earthquake dislocation and landmass motion
- Caves, grottoes
- Examples of rock organization
- Onsen and their sediments
- Erosion and weathering related phenomena
- Fumaroles and other items related to volcanic activity
- Ice and frost related phenomena
- Particularly precious rock, mineral and fossil specimen
- Representative territories rich in natural monuments to be protected (Natural Protected Areas)
Usage
The table's columns (except for Remarks and Photo) are sortable pressing the arrows symbols. The following gives an overview of what is included in the table and how the sorting works.
- Name: name of the monument as registered in the Database of Cultural Properties
- Special Place of Scenic Beauty: criteria under which the monument has been designated or "-" if it is not a Special Place of Scenic Beauty
- Special Historic Site: criteria under which the monument has been designated or "-" if it is not a Special Historic Site
- Special Natural Monument: criteria under which the monument has been designated or "-" if it is not a Special Natural Monument
- Remarks: general remarks
- Location: "town-name prefecture-name" and geo coordinates of the monument if applicable
- sorts as "prefecture-name town-name"
- Photo: picture of the monument
Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites, Special Natural Monuments
References
External links
