Shōwa

Kyoto · 昭和

Browse Kyoto’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.

218 total Kyoto Shōwa Period 1926 – 1989
Showing 1 – 20 of 218
Aoki Family Main Building
Kyoto 昭和前
Aoki Family Main Building

Built in 1930 in Kyoto, the Aoki Family Residence Main House sets a stained-glass Western room at the street and a sukiya tatami wing behind. Registered 2014.

Aoki Family Storehouse
Kyoto 昭和前
Aoki Family Storehouse

A mud-walled kura of just 13 square metres, the Aoki Family Residence Storehouse of 1930 faces the sukiya main house across a Kyoto courtyard. Registered in 2014.

Saigetsuan Tea House at the Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art
Kyoto 昭和前
Saigetsuan Tea House at the Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art

A small tea house on Kaga Shotaro's Oyamazaki estate, its table-style tea seat doubling as a Buddhist chapel, opened only for seasonal tea gatherings.

Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum Oak Tree Tea House
Kyoto 昭和前
Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum Oak Tree Tea House

A tiny teahouse on Kaga Shotaro's estate, a log-framed room projecting over a stone base set into the slope, a deft blend of West and Japan. Not normally open.

Amino Shrine Offering Hall
Kyoto 昭和前
Amino Shrine Offering Hall

By the worship hall stands Amino Shrine's offering hall, an early-Showa building where offerings for the deities are prepared, plain but carefully made.

Amino Shrine Lattice Fence
Kyoto 昭和前
Amino Shrine Lattice Fence

Wrapping around the main hall of Amino Shrine, this thirty-metre early-Showa openwork fence is solid below and latticed above, ringing the sacred inner ground.

Amino Shrine Chozuya
Kyoto 昭和前
Amino Shrine Chozuya

Beside the approach to Amino Shrine stands its ablution pavilion, built in 1943 to mark the shrine's promotion to prefectural rank, open on all sides under a copper roof.

Amino Shrine Corridor
Kyoto 昭和前
Amino Shrine Corridor

A short covered corridor linking the worship hall to the main hall of Amino Shrine, built around 1929. Its thin brackets and curved rafters show a delicate touch.

Ayabe Ohashi Bridge
Kyoto 昭和前
Ayabe Ohashi Bridge

Ayabe Ohashi Bridge over the Yura River in Ayabe, Kyoto, built in 1929, is a seven-span steel pony truss 210 metres long that follows its timber predecessor.

Ando Family Residence (former Residence of Shigejiro Fujii)
Kyoto 昭和前
Ando Family Residence (former Residence of Shigejiro Fujii)

A 1936 single-storey house in Kyoto's Shishigatani, half-timbered outside and fitted with joinery from a passenger liner. Built by Konoike-gumi; registered 2004.

Izumo Daijingu Shrine Office
Kyoto 昭和前
Izumo Daijingu Shrine Office

Izumo Daijingu's shrine office in Kameoka, Kyoto: a 1931 tiled building of 182 square meters with staggered tatami rooms, a railed veranda and chrysanthemum struts.

Izumo Daijingu Shrine Kurodayu Auxiliary Shrine
Kyoto 昭和前
Izumo Daijingu Shrine Kurodayu Auxiliary Shrine

Izumo Daijingu's Kurodayu auxiliary shrine in Kameoka, Kyoto: a 1938 one-bay sanctuary outside the grounds, with chamfered posts and classical carved details.

Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall Corridors and Openwork Fence
Kyoto 昭和前
Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall Corridors and Openwork Fence

Izumo Daijingu's corridors and openwork fence in Kameoka, Kyoto: an 1893 lattice fence and 1935 bark-roofed corridors that together enclose the main hall.

Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall Middle Gate and Norito Hall
Kyoto 昭和前
Izumo Daijingu Shrine Main Hall Middle Gate and Norito Hall

Izumo Daijingu's middle gate and norito hall in Kameoka, Kyoto: a 1934 four-legged gate and open prayer pavilion under cypress bark with a curved karahafu gable.

Imamiya Shrine Otabisho Shinyo Hoanden Hall
Kyoto 昭和前
Imamiya Shrine Otabisho Shinyo Hoanden Hall

Built in 1945 at the Imamiya Shrine Otabisho in Kyoto, this large hall holds the mikoshi during the Imamiya Festival, with high central openings and a trussed roof.

Oomoto Mirokuden
Kyoto 昭和中
Oomoto Mirokuden

The Mirokuden of Oomoto at Baishoen in Ayabe, Kyoto, a worship hall of 1953 over 50 metres long, hides a steel frame under timber and has a vast coffered hall.

Oyamazaki Sanso Former Garage (Kyoto Prefecture Rest Area)
Kyoto 昭和前
Oyamazaki Sanso Former Garage (Kyoto Prefecture Rest Area)

Kaga Shōtarō's Tudor half-timber former garage beneath Mount Tennōzan, registered as a Cultural Property and now operated as a free rest house by Kyoto Prefecture on the wooded grounds of Ōyamazaki Sansō.

Ogawa Family Kitashirakawa Villa Front Gate
Kyoto 昭和前
Ogawa Family Kitashirakawa Villa Front Gate

A 1934 bracketed gate fronting a Kitashirakawa villa by Fujii Koji, with a slatted transom, copper roof and a boulder set in its stone floor. Registered 2020.

Kawai Kanjiro Memorial Museum (Former Kawai Kanjiro Residence) Small Tea Room
Kyoto 昭和前
Kawai Kanjiro Memorial Museum (Former Kawai Kanjiro Residence) Small Tea Room

A two-mat tea-room-style hut of 1937 in Kawai Kanjiro's courtyard, built of thick farmhouse timbers with a slatted ceiling and a well, used for thought, not tea.

Kawai Kanjiro Memorial Museum (Former Kawai Kanjiro Residence) Main House
Kyoto 昭和前
Kawai Kanjiro Memorial Museum (Former Kawai Kanjiro Residence) Main House

Kawai Kanjiro designed this 1937 Kyoto house himself: a hipped, gable-entry timber home with a lattice front and a double-height hall around an irori hearth.