Shōwa

The 1933 portal of a 696-metre water conduit below Aoshita No. 1 Dam in Sendai. Pilasters and a machicolated cornice frame the arch of this registered entrance.

Completed in 1934 on the Aoshita River near Sendai, this working waterworks dam stands 13.4 metres high, and its cobblestone spillway is seen from the crest bridge.

A reinforced concrete cylinder of 1933 rising from a reservoir near Sendai, 15.5 metres tall. Three intake mouths at differing depths draw the cleanest layer.

The uppermost of three Sendai waterworks dams, finished in 1934 with the longest crest at 60.4 metres. A sediment outlet below its subsidiary weir keeps silt down.

The middle dam of three on the Aoshita River near Sendai, completed in 1934 and standing about 10 metres above the reservoir below. A forest path reaches a view.

Erected in 1934 beside Aoshita No. 1 Dam near Sendai, this broad stone monument carries a goat-head spout in front and a plate naming the engineers on its reverse.

Built in 1933 as the water source office above the first Aoshita reservoir near Sendai, this small concrete building curves its stair tower out and has portholes.

A small cobblestone weir of 1933 standing 518 metres above Aoshita No. 3 Dam near Sendai. A notch in its crest lets the flow of the river be read as a number.

Three-story cedar inn at Kamasaki Onsen, rebuilt 1941 after flood damage. Cedar through-pillars run from basement to top floor. National Cultural Property, 2016.

Discover the Kakuboshi Store, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Kesennuma, Miyagi. This early Showa-era kura-style building survived the 2011 tsunami and was painstakingly rebuilt, standing today as a symbol of resilience and traditional craftsmanship.

Completed in 1930 on Tohoku University's Katahira campus, this scratch-tiled block served as the school gate: a vaulted passage runs through it under the SKK crest.

This 1934 stable in Kurihara, Miyagi, is eleven metres long, with an earth floor, doorways widened for horses and deep segai-zukuri eaves beneath a thatched roof.

Completed in 1930, this L-shaped classroom building gathers its arch, stone cladding, and rooftop tower at the center of a rare symmetrical facade.

This 1929 laboratory pairs brick tile and arched windows with a plainer upper floor, its central entrance crowned by stained glass, in Sendai's Katahira Campus.

Completed in 1927, this concrete building with herringbone brick tilework survived the 1945 air raids as the last Faculty of Law and Letters building.

Built in 1932 and extended in 1935, this scratch-tile building with vertical piers and a stone entrance now serves as Tohoku University's headquarters.

The Former Marumori Post Office in Miyagi Prefecture, completed in 1935, is a wooden two-story Western-style building registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2009. Its scratch-tile ground floor, pebble-dash upper story, and dentil-decorated parapet capture the early-Showa fashion for modernist architecture as it reached small provincial towns. Together with the nearby Sairi Yashiki estate, it offers a window into the layered history of Marumori, a quiet town tucked along the Abukuma River.

Discover Shojiya Soy Sauce Shop in Sendai's Hachiman district, a 1936 segai-zukuri merchant building registered as a national tangible cultural property, still producing traditional Sendai miso since the late Edo period.

Discover the Shinya Abe Family Residence Retirement House (Inkyo-ya), a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in 1954 on Tashiro-jima, Miyagi Prefecture's famous Cat Island. This charming two-story wooden building reflects the prosperity and aesthetics of a traditional fishing family.

The Mikoshi-den at Tsushima Shrine in Tome City, Miyagi, was donated in 1928 together with the mikoshi itself by Sato Tetsuro, operator of the Sanuma Railway. It marked the end of a decade-long reconstruction after the catastrophic 1912 fire, and in 2024 it was added to Japan's national register of tangible cultural properties alongside the shrine's main and worship halls.