Important Cultural Property (Japan)
item judged by the Agency for Cultural Affairs to be of particular importance to the Japanese people
An Important Cultural Property (重要文化財, jūyō bunkazai) is an item officially classified as Tangible Cultural Property by the Japanese government's Agency for Cultural Affairs (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology) and judged to be of particular importance to the history, arts, and culture of the Japanese people.
Classification of Cultural Properties
To protect the cultural heritage of Japan, the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties was created as a "designation system" (指定制度) under which important items are appropriated as Cultural Properties, thus imposing restrictions to their alteration, repair and export. Besides the "designation system", there exists a "registration system" (登録制度), which guarantees a lower level of protection and support to Registered Cultural Properties.
Cultural Properties are classified according to their nature. Items designated as Tangible Cultural Properties (as opposed to Intangible Cultural Properties), cultural products of high historical or artistic value such as structures, paintings, sculptures, handicrafts, calligraphic works, ancient books, historic documents, archeological artifacts and other such items, can later, if they satisfy certain criteria, be designated either Important Cultural Properties or National Treasures (国宝), for especially valuable items. The designation can take place at the city (市定重要文化財, city designated Important Cultural Property), prefectural (県定重要文化財, prefecturally designated Important Cultural Property) or national (国定重要文化財, nationally designated Important Cultural Property) level. In this last case the designating agency is often not specified. Varying levels of designation can coexist. For example, Sankei-en, a traditional Japanese-style garden in Naka Ward, Yokohama, is both city and nationally designated as an Important Cultural Properties.
“Important Cultural Property (Japan)” enters the record as item judged by the Agency for Cultural Affairs to be of particular importance to the Japanese people. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Important, Cultural and Property can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“Important Cultural Property (Japan)” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Important, Cultural and Property provides the most credible route into that argument.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Feb 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1188622. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Important Cultural Property (Japan)”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Important Cultural Property (Japan) primary sources, Important Cultural Property (Japan) archive and Important research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
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This entry incorporates text from “Important Cultural Property (Japan)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.