Shōwa

Discover the Nippon Sei Ko Kai Chubu Diocese Okaya St. Barnabas Church, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Okaya, Nagano. Built in 1928 for silk factory workers, this unique wooden chapel blends Anglican traditions with Japanese tatami-mat flooring and shrine-style ornamentation.

Nozawa Onsen Lodge in Nozawa Onsen Village, Nagano Prefecture, is a three-story wooden dome building completed in 1969, designed by Takamasa Yoshizaka and his U Laboratory. Yoshizaka was one of three Japanese architects who studied directly under Le Corbusier. The lodge features a distinctive acorn-shaped form with green steel-plate cladding, a central spiral staircase, and radially arranged guest rooms on a hexagonal plan. Designed to allow natural snow shedding in an area with over 3 meters of annual snowfall, it has been recommended for registration as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property. The lodge remains open for guests, offering a rare opportunity to stay in a designated cultural property.

By the gateway of the ryokan Hanaya, the Hanaya Hotel Front Building of about 1929 shows a 10 ken frontage with railed upper windows and eaves transoms.

Linking wings at the ryokan Hanaya, the Hanaya Hotel North Connecting Corridor is an early Showa walkway 15 metres long, with log posts and open flanks.

West of the main building at the ryokan Hanaya, the Hanaya Hotel Building 50 was added in the early Showa years and holds two detached guest rooms in sukiya style.

An early-Showa covered walkway to the main building at Hanaya Hotel. Some 22 metres long under a gabled copper roof, log posts and curved beams form a sukiya-style link.

An early-Showa covered walkway from the office wing to the large bath at Hanaya Hotel. About 18 metres long, open at the sides, bark-edged posts make a sukiya passage.

A guest wing of about 1950, south of the central hall at Hanaya Hotel. Its three rooms use prized timber, including black persimmon in the thresholds, around the alcoves.

The Bridal Somebana Mimura Shop, located along the former Kōshū Kaidō highway in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1929. A fine example of kanban kenchiku (signboard architecture) featuring geometric ornamentation on its Western-style façade, it forms a distinctive streetscape together with the adjacent Mimura Jewelry Store.

The Furuta Akira Memorial Museum Exhibition Room in Kitaono, Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, is a literary museum housed in a converted traditional storehouse from the birthplace of Furuta Akira, founder of the renowned publishing house Chikuma Shobō. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2009, the museum displays approximately 90 literary artifacts, including a hanging scroll by Dazai Osamu and letters from Kawabata Yasunari. The building itself is an architectural gem featuring distinctive namako-kabe plaster walls, open second-floor tatami rooms, and an elegant sukiya-style connecting corridor.

Located at the northern edge of Narai-juku post town in Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, the Maruyama Shikkiten Oya Stone Storehouse is a three-story building constructed in 1961 using Oya stone from Tochigi Prefecture. Inspired by stone buildings seen near Utsunomiya, Kiso lacquerware merchants built it as a lacquer workshop, but dust and condensation issues made it impractical. As the sole surviving example of its kind, it is registered as a national tangible cultural property.

The Mampei Hotel Alps Wing in Karuizawa, designed by Kume Gonkuro and opened in 1936, pairs Alpine half-timber with Shinshu farmhouse detail. Still a working hotel.

Discover Minami Uchida Community Hall in Shiojiri, Nagano — the oldest surviving postwar community hall in the prefecture. Built in 1947 through dedicated community effort, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property features a striking irimoya-zukuri wooden design using centuries-old timber from a local shrine.

Completed in 1928 and registered in 2011, this Suwa shopfront hides a plain timber house behind a Western-looking arched screen. A cafe bistro opened inside in 2024.

Completed in 1939 above Matsumoto, this stone arch sabo dam curves on a 30-metre radius, stands 15 metres high, and still traps sediment. It was registered in 2024.

Step into the Yudanaka Station Old Building, a 1927 wooden depot in chalet form with Stick-style detailing that has welcomed travelers to Nagano's hot spring resorts for nearly a century. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan since 2005, it now serves as Kaede no Yakata, a free community space at the gateway to the Yudanaka-Shibu onsen district and Shiga Kogen.

A 1944 gravity-type concrete sabo dam on the Yokoyu River in Yamanouchi, Nagano. Registered in 2021, this 39-meter structure helps protect the historic Yudanaka-Shibu onsen valley from debris flows.

Yoroduya Ryokan's Momoyama Bath in Yudanaka Onsen, Nagano, is a wooden temple-style bathhouse completed in 1953 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. Its coved coffered ceiling, nail-free joinery, and oval Inada-stone tub make it one of Japan's most extraordinary places to bathe.