Shōwa

Discover Nagahama Ohashi Bridge in Ozu City, Ehime, Japan's oldest still-operating bascule road bridge. Built in 1935, this striking red landmark over the Hijikawa River opens regularly for visitors and was designated an Important Cultural Property in 2014.

The Ehime Prefectural Education Hall in Matsuyama City is a three-story wooden building constructed in 1937, designed by prefectural architect Asaka Ryōsuke. Blending Western architectural styles with traditional Japanese decorative elements, it exemplifies early Shōwa-period design and was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2003.

Completed in 1929, the Ehime Prefectural Office Main Building is a Western-style reinforced concrete structure designed by architect Kigo Shichirō. Featuring a distinctive H-shaped plan crowned with a domed tower, marble interiors, and elegant chandeliers, it is the third-oldest prefectural office still in active use by a governor in Japan. It was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2021.

Quietly standing within the precincts of Chōraku-ji Temple in Matsuyama City, Ehime Prefecture, the Kagiya Kana Shōkōdō (Kagiya Kana Memorial Hall) was built in 1929 to honor the achievements of Kagiya Kana, a woman who created Iyo-kasuri, one of Japan's three great kasuri textiles. Designed by the renowned architect Kigo Shichirō, who also created the famous Bansui-sō and the Ehime Prefectural Government Main Building, this distinctive reinforced-concrete octagonal hall is supported by eight entasis columns and traditional bracket sets, beautifully fusing Eastern and Western architectural sensibilities. It was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2001.

Kihoku Town Hall in Ehime Prefecture is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1958 as the original Hiromi Town Hall, designed by the office of Czech-born architect Antonin Raymond. Its third-floor council chamber features a then-cutting-edge hyperbolic paraboloid shell roof, and circular glass blocks scatter colored light across the interior. A meticulously faithful renovation has earned it multiple national architectural awards, and it is now celebrated as a hidden gem of postwar Japanese modernism.

Built in 1935 for a Sumitomo Chemical manager in Niihama, this registered house splits guest and family space with a central tatami corridor. Free Sunday tours.

Completed in 1959, this auditor's house is the only postwar building among Niihama's six registered Sumitomo residences. Exterior viewing only at present.

At 295 square meters, this 1935 executive house is the largest of Niihama's six registered Sumitomo residences, clad in vertical boards and white plaster.

The 1937 reception annex of the Besshi mine director's residence greets guests under two stacked entrance roofs and a Western drawing room. Free Sunday tours.

The 1937 main house of the Besshi mine director's residence pairs a zigzag corridor with garden-facing tatami rooms. Niihama's grandest company home survives.

This eight-mat tea room of 1937 sets its alcove post atop a 2.7-meter cabinet with a glowing shoji above, a free-spirited detail. Open Sunday mornings, free.

The Former Ninomiya Sawmill Office and Main House in Oda, Uchiko Town, Ehime Prefecture, is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property that preserves the forestry heritage of one of Shikoku's most densely forested mountain communities. This combined office-residence tells the story of the timber industry that sustained the Oda district for generations.

Discover the Former Hiraiso Submarine Cable Landing Station, a registered tangible cultural property in Ikata, Ehime. Built in 1927, this reinforced concrete structure once linked Shikoku and Kyushu via undersea telegraph cables across the Iyo-nada Sea.

Set on the grounds of the former Saijo domain headquarters in Ehime Prefecture, the Saijo Eiko Church Pastor's House is a two-story wooden building designed in 1951 by Urabe Shizutaro, one of the most influential architects of postwar Japan. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2021 together with the adjoining sanctuary and kindergarten, the building blends white plaster walls, cedar plank cladding, exposed timber framing, and lattice and shoji screens in a quietly confident folk-craft idiom—an early masterwork that anticipates Urabe's celebrated Kurashiki cityscape.

Standing within the former Saijo Domain Jinya district in Ehime, the chapel of Saijo Eiko Church is one of the earliest completed works of postwar Japanese architect Urabe Shizutaro. White plaster walls and a rhythm of slender vertical windows give the building a quietly modernist character, blended with Japanese folk-craft sensibility and the spirit of Christian worship. It was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2021.

Standing along the moat of the former Saijo Jinya in Ehime Prefecture, the Saijo Eiko Kindergarten Building is a single-storey wooden structure designed in 1953 by the celebrated architect Shizutaro Urabe. Together with the adjacent church chapel and pastor's residence, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in February 2021. Discover this rare ensemble of postwar wooden modernism on a quiet walk along the moat.

The Butokuden in Niihama City, Ehime Prefecture, is a wooden martial arts hall built in 1938 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Distinguished by its layered chidori-hafu gable and irimoya-zukuri entrance porch, it is one of Japan's rare surviving prewar Butokuden halls that continues to serve as an active martial arts training facility.