607 CE – 1868 CE · 3 sites
Country Record
Longest Recorded History in Japan
1333 CE – 1868 CE
Japan's finest surviving feudal castle — a white-plastered maze of keeps, gates, and moats in Hyogo Prefecture — draws enormous Chinese and English search traffic as the country's most complete "original" fortress and a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1993.
Known by the Most Names in Japan
728 CE – 800 CE
Tōdai-ji, founded in 728 CE, is a monumental Buddhist temple in Nara renowned for housing the colossal bronze Great Buddha and reflecting the zenith of imperial patronage during Japan's Nara period.
Oldest Temple in Japan
607 CE – 770 CE
The oldest surviving wooden building complex in the world — a Buddhist temple and monastery founded in 607 CE by Prince Shotoku on the Yamato Plain of Japan, containing structures that have stood for more than 1,400 years. The West Precinct's five-storey pagoda and Kondo (Main Hall) represent the culmination of early East Asian Buddhist architecture as it was transmitted from China and Korea to Japan.
