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

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).

[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.

A monument can be designated based on more than one of these criteria:[4] The table's columns (except for Remarks and Photo) are sortable pressing the arrows symbols.