List of Special Places of Scenic Beauty, Special Historic Sites and Special Natural Monuments

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.[1][2]

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.[3]

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.

  1. ^ "Cultural Properties for Future Generations" (PDF). Administration of Cultural Affairs in Japan ― Fiscal 2009. Agency for Cultural Affairs. June 2007. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2009-03-27.
  2. ^ "Preservation and Utilization of Cultural Properties" (PDF). Administration of Cultural Affairs in Japan ― Fiscal 2009. Agency for Cultural Affairs. 2009. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-11-10.
  3. ^ 史跡等の指定等について [Designation of Historic Sites] (PDF). Agency for Cultural Affairs. 2023-10-24. Retrieved 2022-12-17.

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