Shōwa

Nestled deep in the mountains of Eiheiji Town, Fukui Prefecture, Eiheiji is a head temple of Soto Zen Buddhism founded by Zen Master Dogen in 1244. The sacred complex features 19 buildings designated as Important Cultural Properties of Japan, including the Sanmon Gate, Butsuden, Hatto, and Sodo, showcasing nearly 800 years of exceptional Zen architectural heritage. As an active training monastery with approximately 100 resident monks, Eiheiji offers visitors zazen meditation sessions and overnight retreat experiences.

Completed in 1927, the Former Owada Bank in Tsuruga, Fukui, combined banking floors with a public dining hall and assembly room. It now houses the city museum.

The smallest registered building at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, this 1956 shed made the wooden crates that carried fine paper to painters nationwide.

Kogura, a 1949 two-story plaster dozo at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, once dried the oversized handmade sheets the mill is celebrated for.

The 1952 Fiber-Boiling House at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, is where kozo, mitsumata, gampi and hemp are boiled and cleaned to begin papermaking.

The 1953 Stretching and Drying Hall at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui dried pressed sheets on boards under a wide truss-spanned room, the final step.

The 1953 Beater House at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui cleaned and beat plant fiber into even pulp under a king-post truss lit by ribbon windows.

The Former Kyoto Dento Company Takahama Branch Office in Takahama, Fukui Prefecture, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1931. This elegant two-story wooden building features a symmetrical façade with semicircular arched windows and ornate beige mortar decorations, reflecting the Western-influenced commercial architecture of early Showa-era Japan. Now serving as a community hub, it preserves the legacy of Japan's electrification history on the scenic Wakasa coast.

Built in 1933 at the heart of Tsuruga Port in Fukui Prefecture, these reinforced concrete warehouses showcase International Style architecture with distinctive Spanish tiles and decorative accents that earned them the nickname 'Modern Warehouses.' Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property, they preserve the legacy of Tsuruga's golden era as Japan's gateway to Europe and Asia.

Discover the Former Nakanata Post Office in Obama, Fukui — a 1936 Western-style wooden building registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, now revived as the charming community café Kinshiro.

A modern outlier among Meiji brick tunnels, the 1953 Yamanaka Rock Shed is one of Japan's earliest prestressed-concrete structures, a leap in engineering fifty years on.

Discover Suya Taihekitei, a soan-style teahouse registered as a national tangible cultural property in Echizen, Fukui. Originally cherished by Sengoku-era warlords, this thatched-roof retreat offers an intimate glimpse into Japan's living tea culture.

Tani Community Hall is a two-story wooden Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1953, located in the mountain village of Tani in Katsuyama City, Fukui Prefecture. Standing on a hilltop along the historic Ushikubi Kaidō road, it features a distinctive half-hipped roof, clapboard exterior, and elegant gable design with vertical windows and armored shutters.

The Torihama Sake Brewery Chimney in Wakasa Town, Fukui Prefecture, is a 13-meter-tall brick chimney built during the early Showa period. Constructed in English-bond brickwork and connected to the brewery's steam kettle through an underground flue, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2011. Standing beside Lake Mikata, it serves as a beloved regional landmark symbolizing over a century of sake-brewing tradition.