A National Treasure sits inside the larger group
National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties are not two parallel ranks; one is nested in the other. According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs, the national government designates the important ones among tangible cultural properties, buildings included, as Important Cultural Properties, and designates those of especially high value from the standpoint of world culture as National Treasures. It helps to think of a National Treasure as the upper tier within Important Cultural Properties.
As of 1 November 2026 (Reiwa 8), there are 234 National Treasure building designations covering 304 buildings, and 2,611 Important Cultural Property designations covering 5,612 buildings; the Important Cultural Property figures include the National Treasures. Designations and buildings are counted separately because one designation can include several buildings. The corridor at Horyu-ji, for example, is one designation made up of two buildings, the east and west corridors. At Horyu-ji, 18 designations, including the Kondo, the five-story pagoda and the Yumedono, are National Treasures, so one precinct holds many of them.
As an example of a National Treasure building, the Agency's page cites Kunozan Toshogu (Shizuoka). Nikko Toshogu, which shares the Toshogu name, is also a National Treasure, and the two are designated separately despite the similar names.
How designation works
The national government designates buildings as National Treasures or Important Cultural Properties. The basis is the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties, enacted in 1950 after the 1949 fire that damaged the Kondo murals at Horyu-ji. Designation is reported to the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology after deliberation by the Council for Cultural Affairs, and takes effect through an official gazette notice.
Once designated, a building is looked after by its owner or a managing body. Conservation repairs are carried out at suitable intervals, and many are run as national subsidy projects. Many of these buildings are wooden, often with cypress-bark or thatched roofs, and are vulnerable to fire, so the state also subsidizes the installation of disaster-prevention equipment.
How registered properties differ
Alongside designation, national cultural properties also have a separate category called registration. Registered Tangible Cultural Properties (buildings) are registered by the state and number 14,884 as of 1 November 2026, far more than the designated ones. National Treasures and Important Cultural Properties are designated and registered properties are registered; the two are separate systems, as the names of the procedures already show.
For a visitor, the quickest way to tell them apart is to check whether the signboard or official website says National Treasure, Important Cultural Property or Registered Tangible Cultural Property. The place pages on this site also give the names of the National Treasure buildings and the year each was designated.
The Agency for Cultural Affairs continues nationwide surveys to locate and record buildings from the modernization period, which are disappearing quickly, and some of them have recently been designated Important Cultural Properties. Its page cites the Sugimoto family residence (Kyoto), Katakura-kan (Nagano) and the former Ibigawa Bridge (Gifu) among its examples.
Designation applies building by building
National Treasure status is granted to individual buildings, not to a whole temple or shrine. Four are designated under the name Daigo-ji: the five-story pagoda, the Kondo, the Yakushi-do and the worship hall of Seiryu-gu, while the Omote Shoin and Karamon gate of Sanpo-in are National Treasures under a separate name. Muro-ji has three: the five-story pagoda, the Kondo and the Hondo. Even when a temple is called a National Treasure temple, only specific buildings hold the status, and the rest of the precinct is treated separately. Checking in advance which buildings are designated makes it easier to decide where to look once inside.
Reading the structure field and the designation dates
In the structure field of the Agency's database of nationally designated properties, entries run in the order of size, number of stories, roof form and roof material. The Horyu-ji Kondo reads 5 bays by 4 bays, two stories, mokoshi on the first story, hip-and-gable, honkawara tile, plank-roofed mokoshi, where the bay counts express the building's size in units of the span between columns. How to read roof forms and materials is covered in the article on roof shapes and materials.
The designation date is also a clue. The 18 designations at Horyu-ji were designated on six different dates between 1951 and 1967. Even within one precinct, buildings were added to the National Treasure list at different times.
Modern buildings are National Treasures too. The Agency's page cites the former Togu Palace (the Akasaka Palace State Guest House) as an example, and the former Kaichi School building and the former Tomioka Silk Mill are also designated. The term does not refer only to old temples, shrines and castles.