Shōwa
Nagano · 昭和Browse Nagano’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
A Showa-period summer villa at Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Its west face is glazed on both floors with a sunroom behind, an early work of timber modernism.
A Showa-period road bridge at Oshika, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. Its road runs beneath three concrete arches tied to the girders, a fine example of a common type.
A Showa-period museum building in Azumino, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. It takes the outward shape of a Christian church over there even so even now today.
Antonin Raymond built this 1933 Karuizawa villa with log framing and a butterfly roof. An Important Cultural Property since 2023, it now houses the Musee Peynet.
The Sakato Bridge of 1932 in Nakagawa, Nagano, spans the Tenryu with a parabolic concrete arch of 70 metres, the longest span of any surviving prewar road bridge.
An early Showa shed in Azumino, Nagano, bent into an L to close the southwest corner of the Iida estate, white-walled toward the road and open toward the grounds.
Facing south from a stone platform at the north-west of the estate in Okaya, this one-bay household shrine of 1.1 square metres keeps a canopy over its front.
The Anglican church of St Michael and All Angels in Ueda, Nagano, built in 1932, is a timber church in the Japanese style with paper-screened windows.
A three-storey early Showa storehouse on the road edge of the Katakura homestead in Okaya, its largest kura, once a rice store, with a west eave drawn inside.
Kanaguya Annex Rinsenkaku Main Building in Shibu Onsen, Nagano, is a 1929 timber inn annex with layered eaves and walls finished differently on each floor.
Kanaguya Annex Rinsenkaku Bathhouse in Shibu Onsen, Nagano, is a 1929 timber bathhouse whose large bath borrows the columns and beams of a Buddhist temple hall.
Kanaguya Ryokan Great Hall in Shibu Onsen, Nagano, is a 1936 timber banquet hall with a coffered ceiling and its original stage, now used to dine overnight guests.
East of the Ozawa main house in Matsumoto's Hofukuji town, this early-Showa annex sets stained glass and coved plaster below tatami rooms, listed as a model of design.
A 17-metre steel fire lookout tower raised in 1955 beside the old Ina highway in Tatsuno, Nagano, with an alarm bell under its pointed roof and scrolled eaves.
The Kyu-Karuizawa House, a villa of about 1927 owned by a granddaughter of Matsukata Masayoshi, is clad in red clapboard with an Asama-stone fireplace inside.
Built in 1936, the Former Suzuki Dental Clinic (Kataoka Sanso) is a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Karuizawa, Nagano Prefecture. This Western-style wooden building features striking bengara red clapboard siding with white window frames, preserving the historic resort landscape of Japan's premier highland retreat.
The former Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank branch in Matsumoto, Nagano, a concrete bank of 1937 on the road to the castle, has seven curved arches across its front.
The former Hamilton and Heard Cottage in Old Karuizawa, a Vories villa of about 1932, is a plain clapboard house with a half-hipped roof, window bands and a chimney.
The newest building on the Ichiboshi-tei estate in Ikusaka, Nagano: an early Showa shed open on the yard side, with double doors onto the road. Registered 2019.
A two-storey timber summer house of about 1930 in old Karuizawa, Nagano, with a wide sunroom facing south and rooms set around a hearth of undressed river stones.