Cultural Properties of Japan in the context of "Monuments of Japan"

Historic Monuments of Ancient Nara is a UNESCO World Heritage Site consisting of eight places in the old capital Nara in Nara Prefecture, Japan. Five are Buddhist temples, one is a Shinto shrine, one is a Palace and one a primeval forest. The properties include 26 buildings designated by the Japanese Government as National Treasures as well as 53 designated as Important Cultural Properties. All compounds have been recognized as Historic Sites. The Nara Palace Site was designated as Special Historic Site and the Kasugayama Primeval Forest as Special Natural Monument. Tōdai-ji, Kōfuku-ji and the Kasugayama Primeval Forest overlap with Nara Park, a park designated as one of the "Places of Scenic Beauty" by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). UNESCO listed the site as World Heritage in 1998.

Metempsychosis (生々流転, Seisei ruten), alternatively translated as The Wheel of Life, is a painting by Japanese Nihonga artist Yokoyama Taikan. First displayed at the tenth Inten exhibition in 1923, it forms part of the collection of the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and has been designated an Important Cultural Property.

An Intangible Cultural Property (無形文化財, mukei bunkazai), as defined by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties (1950), is a part of the Cultural Properties of high historical or artistic value such as drama, music, and craft techniques. The term refers exclusively to human skills possessed by individuals or groups which are indispensable to produce Cultural Properties.

Items of particular importance can be designated as Important Intangible Cultural Properties (重要無形文化財, jūyō mukei bunkazai). Recognition is also given to the owners of an item to encourage its transmission. There are three types of recognition: individual recognition, collective recognition, and group recognition. Special grants of two million yen a year are given to individual holders (the so-called Living National Treasures) to help protect their properties. The government also contributes part of the expenses incurred either by the holder of an Intangible Cultural Property during training of his successor, or by a recognized group for public performances.

Yamato Sanzan (大和三山) or "the three mountains of Yamato", in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, Japan, are Mount Amanokagu (香具山), Mount Unebi (畝傍山), and Mount Miminashi (耳成山). Celebrated in Japanese poetry, they have been jointly designated a Place of Scenic Beauty. Jimmu, first Emperor of Japan, is said to have built his palace on the southeast side of Mt Unebi; he is enshrined at Kashihara Jingū. Archaeological study in the 1990s has shown that, rather than their surrounding Fujiwara-kyō on three sides, the "palace-city" was so large as to encompass the three mountains.

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  Mt Kagu (152.4 m) 34°29′43.5″N 135°49′05.5″E / 34.495417°N 135.818194°E / 34.495417; 135.818194
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  Mt Unebi (199.2 m) 34°29′32.5″N 135°47′06″E / 34.492361°N 135.78500°E / 34.492361; 135.78500
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  Mt Miminashi (139.7 m) 34°30′53″N 135°48′20″E / 34.51472°N 135.80556°E / 34.51472; 135.80556

A Tangible Cultural Property (有形文化財, yūkei bunkazai) as defined by the Japanese government's Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties is a part of the Cultural Properties of high historical or artistic value such as structures, paintings, sculptures, handicrafts, calligraphic works, ancient books, historic documents, archeological artifacts and other such items created in Japan. All objects which are not structures are called "works of fine arts and crafts.

Considered by the Japanese government to be, like all Cultural Properties, a precious legacy of the Japanese people, they are protected in various ways, and their export is either controlled or forbidden.