Shōwa

Discover the Nippon Sei Ko Kai Nara Christ Church, a stunning Japanese-style Anglican church adjacent to Kōfuku-ji Temple in Nara. Designed by master carpenter Ōki Kichitarō and completed in 1930, this Important Cultural Property of Japan uniquely blends traditional Japanese architecture with Western liturgical design.

Discover the Ikusei Kindergarten Building, doubling as the Nippon Sei Ko Kai Sakurai St. Paul's Church Chapel in Sakurai City, Nara. Built in 1930, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property blends Western church architecture with Japanese craftsmanship, featuring scissor trusses and pointed arch windows.

Quietly set on a wooded hillside in Uda City, Nara Prefecture, the Ushitani Family Residence Main House was completed in 1968 by the office of Junzo Sakakura, a disciple of Le Corbusier, and was added to Japan’s register of Tangible Cultural Properties in December 2024. Its deep-eaved roof, clockwise flow of ground-floor rooms, and radially arranged rafters make it a small but refined masterwork of mature post-war Japanese modernism.

Uchiyama-ke Kashiya, registered in 2020, is a single-storey Nara house built to be let in the Showa Depression. Grey lime walls, and no earth passage inside.

Built in 1930 at the southeast corner of a Naramachi plot, this eleven-square-metre earthen storehouse has plastered walls, board skirting and a sliding door.

Built around 1938 at the northwest corner of this Kashihara estate in Nara, the storehouse takes its name from inui, the old compass word for northwest.

Completed in 1933 and designed by master carpenter Nakagawa Kichijirō, the Former Ikoma Town Hall is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property featuring traditional Japanese architectural elements including irimoya-hafu gables and refined woodwork. Now the Ikoma Furusato Museum, this beautifully restored building showcases the rich heritage of Ikoma City.

A bracket gate 2.0 metres wide on a stone plinth, lattice doors outside and folding doors within, plus 15 metres of plastered fence. Registered in 2025.

Registered in March 2025, this 174-square-metre Nara townhouse of 1940 sits back behind its own gate and keeps its half-storey, doma and cooking hearth.

Only 19 square metres, this Nara storehouse of about 1940 pairs a heavy hongawara gable with namako-kabe tilework on its courtyard face. Registered 2025.

Discover the Former Sixty-Eight Bank Yagi Branch in Kashihara, Nara — a 1928 Renaissance-inspired reinforced concrete landmark, now a French restaurant. Explore this Registered Tangible Cultural Property and its fascinating history.

Saho Kaikan, located on the campus of Nara Women's University, is an alumni hall built in 1928 to commemorate the wedding of Crown Prince Hirohito (later Emperor Shōwa). Designed by architect Iwasaki Heitarō, this two-story wooden building features a stately irimoya roof, a grand hall with a coffered ceiling, and refined tatami rooms with openwork transoms. It was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2005.

Discover the Jokyoji Temple Bulletin Board Shelter (Keijibansya), a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Nara. This early Showa-era structure stands on Japan's oldest shopping street and is connected to Ernest Fenollosa's historic lecture on preserving Japanese art.

A small storehouse of about 1933 sits at the rear of a Naramachi plot, hard against the Gangoji boundary. Its trapezoid plan follows the awkward edges of the site.

Built in 1933 for a Nara timber wholesaler as house and office, this registered machiya faces the lane east of Gangoji. Fine figured wood lines its upstairs room.

A 30-metre timber boundary wall at Anashi in Sakurai, Nara, built around 1932 and registered in 2004 for the way it holds a six-building estate together.