Shōwa

The Ibara Civic Hall Annex, located in central Ibara City in western Okayama Prefecture, is a two-story reinforced concrete structure completed in 1971 alongside the Main Hall. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2023, it embodies the legacy of postwar Japanese modernism through its exposed concrete finishes and distinctive vertical ventilation tower.

Completed in 1971, the Ibara Civic Hall Main Building is a striking reinforced concrete civic hall designed by Murayama Eikō of the Kansai Architectural Office. With its dramatic clock tower and diverse exposed concrete finishes, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2023, standing as a leading example of postwar modernist architecture in western Okayama.

Discover Emi Photo Studio in Tsuyama, Okayama — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1929. Featuring distinctive early Showa-era architecture with arched windows and a semicircular reception room, this working studio also safeguards over 10,000 historic photographs.

Discover the Oura Shrine Torii Gate in Asakuchi, Okayama — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1927 from Kitagi Island granite, featuring calligraphy by former Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi. Explore its connection to Japan's only horse-racing Shinto ritual.

Set on a high stone platform in Yorishima, Asakuchi City, Okayama, Oura Shrine's Main Hall is a magnificent 1927 reconstruction featuring a copper-plated irimoya roof topped with a chidori-hafu and karahafu, lavishly carved with mythological creatures. Founded by the legendary onmyoji Abe no Seimei, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property is also home to the centuries-old Keiba Shinji sacred horse-racing ritual—one of the rare Shinto rites of its kind preserved in Japan.

A 1930 reinforced-concrete book store beside its 1902 brick twin at Okayama Asahi High School, its cornices and windows matched so the pair reads as one.

At the centre of Oku Kōmyōen, a Hansen's disease sanatorium on Nagashima, this 1941 timber hall bears three arched windows and was listed for its striking design.

This 1939 wooden schoolhouse, Kōmyō Gakuen, taught children at the Oku Kōmyōen sanatorium on Nagashima, a rare surviving school built inside such an institution.

This 1949 granite pier at Oku Kōmyōen faces the mainland across a strait, the boat landing that linked the Nagashima sanatorium before the bridge of 1988.

This 1938 concrete cable incline at Oku Kōmyōen lifted supplies from the wharf to the Nagashima sanatorium, back when everything reached the island by boat.

On high ground at Oku Kōmyōen stands a tiny 1943 concrete hōanden that once enshrined the emperor's portrait, a rare survivor at a Hansen's disease sanatorium.

The Okutsuso Main Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1927, stands in the Okutsu Onsen district of Kagamino, Okayama. Its legendary Kagi-yu bath features water rising at 42.6°C directly through the bathtub floor — a foot-source spring experience found at fewer than 30 facilities in all of Japan. Discover this historic wooden inn beloved by printmaker Shiko Munakata and former Prime Minister Tsuyoshi Inukai.

The Okutsu No. 1 Covered Conduit is a 122-metre reinforced-concrete channel faced in coursed stone, built in 1932 on the upper Yoshii River and registered in 2006.

The Okutsu No. 1 Aqueduct is an 18-metre reinforced-concrete rigid-frame bridge of 1932 that carries the power station's canal water across the Kirotani-gawa in Okayama.

The Okutsu Oro-tani-gawa Intake Weir is a small 1932 gravity weir, 4.2 metres wide with an arched sediment outlet, feeding a branch canal of the scheme in Okayama.

The Okutsu Confluence Basin is a 160-metre reinforced-concrete channel of 1930 that gathers surplus and tailwater from the Kamisaihara station for reuse in Okayama.

The Okutsu Kirotani-gawa Intake Weir is a 12-metre gravity weir of 1932 whose intake gate, revetment and arched inlet all survive complete in Okayama.

The Okutsu No. 3 Aqueduct is an 18-metre reinforced-concrete three-span rigid-frame bridge of 1932 carrying a trapezoidal water flume over the Yu-no-tani-gawa in Okayama.

The Okutsu Power Station Regulating Reservoir, nestled in the mountains of Kagamino Town, Okayama Prefecture, is a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1933. This massive reinforced concrete structure features an exceptionally rare buttress-style construction and covers nearly 9,500 square meters. Located near the historic Okutsu Onsen hot springs and the scenic Okutsu Gorge, the site offers a unique blend of industrial heritage and natural beauty.

Discover the Former Kurashiki City Hall, now the Kurashiki City Art Museum—a 1960 Brutalist masterpiece designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Kenzo Tange. Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2020, the building fuses Japanese tradition with modernist innovation in the heart of the Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter.