Shōwa

Discover the Former Yokohama Technical College Main Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property showcasing the elegant fusion of Renaissance and Modernist architecture from 1938. Located in Gumyoji, this historic school building represents Japan's prewar educational heritage.

Completed in 1928, the Kanagawa Prefectural Government Building is one of the Yokohama Three Towers, known by its beloved nickname "King's Tower." Built with steel-reinforced concrete after the Great Kantō Earthquake, this pioneering example of the Imperial Crown Style features a pagoda-inspired tower with a Buddhist spire finial and Art Deco ornamentation fused with traditional hōsōge motifs. Designated a national Important Cultural Property in 2019, the building welcomes visitors to its rooftop observation deck and history exhibition room on weekdays, free of charge.

A 27-square-metre timber storehouse behind a Hadano shop, its mortar walls scored to read as coursed stone. Registered in 2017 as a Tangible Cultural Property.

Frontage of 1.2 metres, depth of 1.8 metres, and a national registration number. This mortar-sealed box behind a Hadano shop is among Japan's smallest listings.

Twin in size to the storehouse beside it, this Hadano warehouse carries a king post truss overhead, a Western technique the national record singles out.

The Iwamotoro Roman Bath is a Western-style bathhouse built around 1930 within the historic Iwamotoro Honkan ryokan on Enoshima Island, Kanagawa Prefecture. Featuring a horseshoe-shaped Roman thermae-style tub, a glass dome ceiling, terracotta ornaments by ceramicist Komori Shinobu, and irreplaceable Italian peacock stained glass by Beppu Shichirō, it was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2001.

The Former Kaji Residence in Hayama, Kanagawa Prefecture, is a nationally registered tangible cultural property designed in 1928 by Arata Endo, a devoted disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright. This Prairie Style masterpiece, known as the 'Little Imperial Hotel' for its lavish use of Oya stone, now operates as an exclusive rental accommodation.

Built in 1936 beside the Daibutsuzaka Tunnel in Kamakura's Hase district, this scratch-tile-clad reinforced concrete pump station is the earliest surviving structure from Kanagawa Prefecture's public waterworks. Now a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it has been beautifully repurposed as MOKICHI KAMAKURA restaurant by Shonan's historic Kumazawa Brewery.

Discover the Former Kamakura Library in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture — a charming 1936 wooden library building featuring a unique blend of Western modern and Japanese architectural design, registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2024.

The Ekodo is a small memorial hall on a rise northwest of Yugyo-ji's Main Hall. Under its pyramidal copper roof sits a raised, finely latticed ceiling. Early Showa work.

Yugyo-ji's bell tower stands on a raised stone base, an open bay of 1934 with inward-leaning octagonal posts. Its bell bears a 1356 inscription, a prefectural property.

Yugyo-ji's Hundred-ken Corridor links the Main Hall to the reception quarters, rising and turning with the sloping precinct, its walls lined with pointed-arch windows.

Shojoko-ji's 1937 Main Hall, seat of the Ji-shu sect in Fujisawa, spans roughly 30 metres each way, its central sanctuary wrapped in outer bays under high ceilings.

Built in 1931 as the headquarters of Showa Fertilizers (now Resonac Corporation), this two-story reinforced concrete office building is a representative example of early Showa factory architecture in the Keihin Industrial Zone. Constructed by Shimizu-gumi, it features a restrained exterior and elegant Western-style interior with stained glass and ornamental details. The site witnessed Japan's first successful ammonia synthesis using domestic technology, and was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 1999 and certified as a Heritage of Industrial Modernization in 2007.

Standing near Yokohama Chinatown, these imposing Art Deco-style stone gate pillars were originally built in 1928 as bridge pillars for the Hanazono Bridge over the Ha-Ōoka River, part of the post-Great Kanto Earthquake reconstruction. Recognized as the largest bridge pillars among Yokohama's reconstruction-era bridges, they are registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property.

Shinzanso (Former Fujiyama Raita Villa) is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built around 1921 in Hakone's Gora district as the mountain retreat of industrialist Fujiyama Raita. The villa blends Japanese thatched-roof sukiya rooms with a Western-style dining wing, skillfully utilizing the steep terrain to create a varied and inventive architectural composition. Located within the nationally designated scenic garden Shinsenkyō, it can be visited as part of the Hakone Museum of Art grounds.

A sixteen-meter garden wall at the former Yamamoto Jotaro villa in Kamakura stacks earth and tile in nine courses on a cobble base, built with the tea room around 1956.

The machiai at the former Yamamoto Jotaro villa in Kamakura is a tiny tea-ceremony waiting arbor of cedar logs and bark-faced walls, built around 1956 and now registered.

The gate at the former Yamamoto Jotaro villa in Kamakura is a single-bay bracket of polished logs with a copper roof, a middle gate on the approach and now registered.

Discover the Sudo Family Residence Former Boiler Room in Zushi, a nationally registered tangible cultural property built by GHQ during the postwar occupation, preserving a unique chapter of Japan's history.