Shōwa
Okayama · 昭和Browse Okayama’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
A 1943 single-storey worker house built for Mitsubishi's Mizushima Aircraft Works in Kurashiki, its tiled hipped roof ringed by lean-tos; exterior view only.
Built in 1930 on a hill in Konko, Okayama, this guest hall hides a timber truss under its irimoya roof and has four tatami-style rooms laid out for chairs. Closed.
The 1930 entrance wing of a guest complex in Konko, Okayama: a copper-roofed irimoya building with a porch, waiting rooms, a kitchen and corridors to two halls.
A 1930 two-storey Western-style guest building in Konko, Okayama, with a corner tower, washed artificial stone walls and medallions, facing a Japanese hall. Closed.
Built in 1927 beside the Konkokyo headquarters in Konko, Okayama, this timber office wears mortar painted like stone and a tall parapet hiding its hipped roof.
Built in 1932 as the Yamada village office, this symmetrical concrete building in Wake, Okayama shows Expressionist touches. Free entry by advance booking.
Mimasaka-Takio Station in Tsuyama keeps its original 1928 wooden building, a registered cultural property. The opening scene of the final Tora-san film was shot here.
Hokoku Station in Takahashi is named for the scholar Yamada Hokoku, said to be Japan's first station named after a person. Its 1928 building is a cultural property.
Chigusa-sha, the tea house of the Kajimura estate in Tsuyama, Okayama: 11 square meters under a slate roof, the smallest of the eight buildings registered there.
The early Showa storehouse behind the Kajimura estate in Tsuyama, Okayama: 25 square meters, ridge and eaves set level with the older storehouse beside it.
The gate on the southern boundary of a merchant compound in Mabicho, Kurashiki. Only 1.9 m wide, it carries a heavy tiled roof on braced posts. Listed in 2025.
A teahouse in a merchant compound in Mabicho, Kurashiki, converted to tea use in the late Taisho period, with a round window and a narrowed alcove. Listed in 2025.
The Chishinkan Front Gate in Tsuyama is a 1937 timber udegimon, 2.8 m high, set slightly below the street behind a stone-bridge approach. Visible from the road.
The Chishinkan Main House in Tsuyama re-creates Hiranuma Kiichiro's samurai birthplace in 1937, with a formal entrance, stepped roofs and a south veranda.
The Chishinkan Storehouse in Tsuyama is a tall two-storey kura whose lower walls match the street wall. Its date is disputed, and it was moved and reset in 2022.
The Chishinkan Wall in Tsuyama is a 26.3 m tiled earthen wall of 1937, with board skirting below white plaster, keeping a samurai street front. Seen from the road.
An early-Showa garden wall at Tsuji Honten in Katsuyama, 47 meters long, on a concrete footing, with cement tiles on one run and fired pan tiles on the other.
Tsuyama's 1933 city hall below the castle ruins, a symmetrical concrete building with a five-tier tower, now a local history museum. Registered 2006; open.
The 1930 director's residence at Nagashima Aiseien, Japan's first national Hansen's disease sanatorium, pairs a Western wing with Japanese rooms. Registered 2019.
At the heart of Nagashima Aiseien stands its 1930 administration building, with Expressionist touches. Since 2003 it has held the History Museum. Registered 2019.