Taishō

A 1920 timber farmhouse beside the moat of fortified Honsho-ji temple in Anjo, its raised altar room and sermon-ready plan earning national registration in 2024.

Behind a Taisho mansion on Nagoya's Cultural Path stands the storehouse of actress Kawakami Sadayakko's former home, a registered reinforced-concrete kura.

A Taisho mansion built for actress Kawakami Sadayakko, restored on Nagoya's Cultural Path with stained glass and period rooms that recall her remarkable life.

Built in 1914, the old office carries a tiled irimoya roof on a Western truss. It once faced the old road and keeps traces of its merchant counter inside.

A two-storey plastered building of 1914. Its ground floor takes the workshop form called a moro, where ceramics were boxed for shipment, a working storehouse.

Tucked away in the mountain town of Shinshiro in eastern Aichi, the Former Ryotei Kikusui is a small wooden building from the late Taisho period that once served as an intimate dining house on the old Bessho Kaido post road. Despite its compact 37-square-meter footprint, it preserves an extraordinary concentration of late Taisho craftsmanship — refined alcoves, patterned glass shoji, and rare exterior plaster reliefs depicting samurai servants and sparrows in a bamboo grove. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2015, this hidden gem pairs perfectly with the adjacent former Ono Bank (now Horaikan cafe) for an off-the-beaten-path heritage visit.

Discover the Shujo Family Residence Stone-Built Embankment in Tokai City, Aichi — a 76-meter Taishō-era seawall built using Hattori Chōshichi's renowned 'artificial stone' (jinzōseki) technique. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2024, this rare survivor preserves the engineering legacy of Meiji–Taishō Japan along the Ise Bay shoreline near Jurakuen Park and the Great Buddha.

Chiryu Shrine's Taisho-era offering hall, registered in 2014, stands before the main hall in a rare Owari-style row of sanctuaries, near a pagoda rebuilt in 1509.

Discover the Tokuunji Bentendo, a charming Taisho-era Benzaiten hall registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan. Located in the historic Kira district of Nishio City, Aichi, this intimate pond-side sanctuary reflects over a century of deep Buddhist faith rooted in the legacy of the revered nun Satta Honshin.

The Main Hall of Shichisho Shrine in Nagoya's Minami Ward was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2018. Originally founded in the Heian period with seven deities from Atsuta Shrine, the Taisho-era hall features rare nagare-zukuri architecture with a hinoki-bark roof — a combination that survived WWII bombings and is now extremely rare in Nagoya. Visitors can also enjoy a 1,000-year-old sacred camphor tree and beautiful seasonal goshuin stamps.

Narumi Tegashi Shrine in Inuyama City, Aichi Prefecture, is an ancient Shikinaisha listed in the Heian-era Engishiki shrine register. Its Saimon-den, a ceremonial prayer hall built around 1917, features a distinctive intersecting roofline that defines the shrine's sacred frontage. Registered as a national tangible cultural property in 2024, this Taisho-era hall is part of a remarkable ensemble of six registered buildings including an exquisitely carved main hall and a charming Benten hall beside a spring-fed pond.

Discover the Iwase Bunko Storehouse in Nishio, Aichi — a nationally registered tangible cultural property built around 1919. This striking brick archive once protected over 80,000 rare books and stands as a symbol of one philanthropist's devotion to public learning.

A registered cultural property in Nishio, Aichi, this small wooden hall opened around 1925 as the Iwase Bunko children's library, its windows set low for children.

Nomasaki, Aichi's oldest lighthouse, has stood on the Chita Peninsula since 1921. Its rare unreinforced concrete form earned cultural-property listing in 2022.

Discover Honko-ji Main Hall, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Okazaki, Aichi. Built in 1913, this Jodo Shinshu temple features stunning black-lacquer and gold-leaf ornamentation from the Taisho era.

Built in 1921, this brick storehouse in Gamagōri, Aichi, is a rare survivor, often called Japan's only brick float storehouse, holding the Sangaigasa parade float.

On the Sakai River in Obu, Aichi, this 1916 stone sluice gate stops floodwater backing up the Myojin River. Built in artificial stone, it was registered in 2021.

Built in 1915 by Kitasato Shibasaburo, this German-Baroque timber laboratory was moved to Museum Meiji-mura in 1980 and is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

Originally guarding the Marunouchi south plaza of Tokyo Station, this 1914 octagonal police box mirrors Tatsuno Kingo's iconic station design. Now preserved at Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi.

Discover the Meiji-mura Brazilian Immigrant House, a registered tangible cultural property originally built in 1919 in São Paulo, Brazil, by Japanese immigrants. Now preserved at the Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi, this unique wooden house blends Japanese carpentry with Brazilian materials, offering visitors a rare glimpse into the pioneering spirit of Japanese emigrants.