Taishō
Kyoto · 大正Browse Kyoto’s cultural heritage from the Taishō period (1912 – 1926). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
A registered wooden house of 1921 in Hanazono, Kyoto, built for a businessman home from Russia. Traditional outside, with a modern middle corridor. Private home.
Standing at the eastern foot of Shijo-ohashi Bridge, directly across from the historic Minamiza kabuki theater, Restaurant Kikusui has been a pioneer of Western cuisine in Kyoto since 1916. Its striking 1926 reinforced-concrete building, designed in an Expressionist style with Art Deco and Spanish accents and crowned by an iconic parabolic elevator tower, was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 1997 and remains a beloved Taisho-era landmark of Gion.
Waka-no-yu, founded in 1903 and rebuilt in 1923 in West Maizuru's Hiranoya arcade, is a Western-style public bathhouse registered in 2018 as a national Tangible Cultural Property. Soak in soft water drawn from the same source as Manai-no-shimizu (one of Japan's Heisei 100 Famous Waters), heated by firewood, while admiring hand-painted Mount Fuji murals by one of the country's last sento muralists.