Shōwa
Chiba · 昭和Browse Chiba’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
A 23-square-metre outbuilding on Iwasaki Hisaya's Chiba estate, its Oya stone walls faced in scratch tile right through the cornice. Registered 2013; exterior only.
Built in 1927 for Iwasaki Hisaya on his Chiba model farm, this registered villa hides concrete footings and gypsum board behind shoin rooms. Open since 2025.
A 1933 merchant house on the Kururi highway in Kimitsu, Chiba, registered in 2009. It sold sickles and bamboo well-drilling parts in a town of artesian springs.
A 1955 timber branch school in Sakura, Chiba, registered in 2021. Just two classrooms sit along one corridor, built to prewar conventions after the war ended.
A reinforced-concrete shelter under a grass mound in Narita, ordered by the Imperial Household Ministry and finished on 8 December 1941, the day war began.
The Nishihiro cannery in Choshi began as a bonito workshop, rebuilt in 1935 with timber trusses over a columnless hall and a tatami office above. Registered in 2018.
Oya stone at the base, three courses of local Choshi stone above, then English-bond brick corbelling out to a capped crown. Thirty-four metres, registered in 2018.
The Former Imperial Japanese Army Anti-Aircraft Artillery 2nd Regiment Searchlight Training Room in Kashiwa City, Chiba Prefecture, is a specialized air defense training facility built around 1938. Soldiers trained inside by projecting aircraft images onto an artificial sky created with canvas and colored lighting. One of only two such structures surviving in Japan, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2024.
Discover the Shikiba Ryuzaburo House, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Ichikawa City, Chiba. Designed by Mingei masters Yanagi Muneyoshi, Hamada Shoji, and Kawai Kanjiro in 1939, this unique residence blends Eastern and Western aesthetics.
Built in 1927 as a Tokyo broker's guest annexe, Seiyokan Club in Ichikawa carries flared hakamagoshi gables on three sides. Registered in 1999, now a concert hall.
Rebuilt in 1930 after earthquake damage, Senchakuji's main hall in Kisarazu casts brackets and eaves in concrete while holding the form of a timber Buddha hall.
Toyonotsuru Sake Brewery Chimney in Otaki, Chiba, is a 16-metre brick stack of about 1948, laid in English bond with a three-stepped head. Registered in 2011.
Toyonotsuru Sake Brewery Shop in Otaki, Chiba, is an early Showa gable-fronted shop of 66 square metres, with a round window in an upstairs room. Registered in 2011.
The Japan Evangelical Lutheran Ichikawa Church Hall, located along the Mama River in Ichikawa City, Chiba Prefecture, is a wooden church designed by architect William Merrell Vories in 1955 and registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008. Its white walls and four-story bell tower reflect Spanish colonial influences.
In Narashino, Chiba, an eight-square-meter roof over a well holds a national cultural property listing, registered in 2003 within a grain wholesaler's compound.
In Tateyama, Chiba, the Beniya Store residence sits beside a shop made from an earthquake-surviving storehouse. From about 1926, it is a registered property.
On Noda's old Edo-River wharf, the Masuda family's early-Showa storehouse hides earthen walls behind mortar scored to mimic stone, a relic of lost river trade.
At a Nagareyama temple stands the Matsugaoka Type 1 Street Lamp, a fluted concrete post residents built to light their 1950s estate, the last of its kind intact.
Discover Mobara Ascension Church, a 1933 wooden Anglican chapel in Chiba Prefecture registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property, featuring half-timbered façade, Latin cross plan, and Tuscan-style porch columns.
Ryokan Matsunoya is a wooden two-storey Japanese inn in Katsuura, Chiba, founded in the late Edo period and rebuilt in the early Showa era. Designated a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2003, it still operates as a working ryokan beside the famous Katsuura Morning Market—one of Japan's three great morning markets. This guide covers its karahafu entrance, hinoki cypress private bath, in-room seafood dinners, and surrounding attractions.