Fukuoka is where written Japanese history begins: a Chinese gold seal from AD 57, the imperial capital of Kyushu at Dazaifu, and 20km of anti-Mongol stone wall. Three days follow that chain, ending in Hakata's temple lanes.
Japan's fourth national museum (opened 2005) tells history through Asian exchange rather than dynasties — Yayoi bronze mirrors, Mongol invasion arrowheads, Nanban trade screens. Open 09:30–17:00, closed Mondays; reached by a long escalator tunnel from Dazaifu Station.
Built in 919 over the grave of Sugawara no Michizane, the scholar-statesman exiled here in 901 and later deified as Tenjin, god of learning. The 1591 main hall is under restoration behind a temporary shrine; 6,000 plum trees bloom late February.
Kanzeon-ji (746) holds Kyushu's oldest temple bell and 18 wooden statues in its Treasure Hall. Ten minutes west, the grassy Tofurō platform is all that remains of Dazaifu-fu, the government seat that ruled Kyushu and handled foreign envoys for 500 years.
After Kublai Khan's 1274 attack, samurai built a 20km stone seawall along Hakata Bay in six months. The 1281 fleet never landed, and a typhoon — the kamikaze — finished it. Excavated sections sit exposed in a quiet residential lane near Nishijin Station.
Home of the King of Na gold seal, gifted by Han emperor Guangwu in AD 57 and dug up by a farmer on Shikanoshima in 1784 — the oldest datable object in Japanese history. Also displays Kuroda clan armour and the spear Nihongō. Open 09:30–17:30, closed Mondays.
Beneath Fukuoka Castle's grounds lie the foundations of the Kōrokan, the 7th–11th century state guesthouse where Tang envoys, Korean missions and returning students were lodged. The hall is built directly over the excavation, walls left in situ.
A French Renaissance-style timber building from 1910, raised for the 13th Kyushu-Okinawa Industrial Exhibition and used to host visiting royalty. An Important Cultural Property, it survives as a rare Meiji-era Western-style guesthouse in Tenjin.
Two colossal bronzes commemorate the Mongol invasions: Emperor Kameyama, who prayed for divine deliverance in 1281, and the monk Nichiren, who predicted the attack. Erected in the Meiji era as patriotic monuments, they stand in a park open around the clock.
Founded in 1195 by the monk Eisai, back from Song China — Japan's first Zen temple, and where he planted the tea seeds that started Japanese tea culture. The gate bears a plaque reading 'first Zen temple in Japan' in Emperor Go-Toba's calligraphy.
Founded by Kūkai in 806 on his return from China, making it the oldest Shingon temple east of the sea. The 10.8m wooden Buddha, carved 1988–1992, sits above a walk-through hell-and-paradise passage; the Kuroda lords' graves lie behind.
Three restored Meiji-Taisho merchant townhouses in the old Hakata weaving district, with a working Hakata-ori silk loom demonstrated daily and archive film of pre-war Yamakasa. Open 10:00–18:00; explains why Hakata and Fukuoka were two rival towns.
The oldest of Japan's roughly 2,000 Sumiyoshi shrines, guarding sailors on the Hakata Bay route to Korea and China for over 1,800 years. The current main hall dates to 1623, rebuilt by Kuroda Nagamasa in the archaic Sumiyoshi-zukuri style.