Taishō

Built in 1915 as the Kurashiki Kindergarten, this Western-style wooden building features a distinctive octagonal playroom—believed to be the only surviving example of its kind in Japan. Now a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it serves as a museum showcasing historical educational materials and folk artifacts near the famed Kurashiki Bikan Historical Quarter.

Around 1917 a dentist in Konko, Okayama built half a Western house and half a Japanese one. Stick Style boards and a decorative gable truss face the street.

Minagi Station in Soja is the oldest surviving station house on the Hakubi Line, built in 1925 as a standard government-railway design. It marked its centenary in 2025.

A Taisho munamon gate on the old Izumo highway in Tsuyama, Okayama, set between roofed board fences and registered in 1997 for its part in the historic streetscape.

A Taisho reception wing at the Kajimura estate in Tsuyama, Okayama: 174 square meters, glazed fittings wrapping both storeys, a divisible tatami suite on each floor.

The Taisho storehouse at the rear of the Kajimura estate in Tsuyama, Okayama: 33 square meters, namako tiling over lime plaster, eaves carried on a layered cornice.

A Taisho building at the Kajimura estate in Tsuyama, Okayama: a Western room with a thrown-mortar German wall joined to a tatami wing, 85 square meters in all.

Built in 1919 within the grounds of Kiyama Shrine in Maniwa City, Okayama, the Zenkaku Inari Shrine Worship Hall is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property designed by architect Egawa Saburohachi. This compact yet distinctive building blends traditional Japanese shrine carpentry with Western truss engineering, featuring clustered rafters, a coffered ceiling, and Western-style foundation stones.

The Tsuyama Christian Library (now Keizo Morimoto Memorial Hall), standing before the Tsuyama Castle ruins in Okayama Prefecture, is Japan's only Christian public library. Founded in 1926 by Morimoto Keizo, a disciple of the renowned Christian thinker Uchimura Kanzō, this three-story wooden Western-style building designed by Sakuraba Komagorō features Ionic pilasters, a clock tower, and elaborate relief carvings. It was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 1998.

Tenrai-an in Kibichuo, Okayama is the first tea house designed by Mirei Shigemori, one of Japan's most celebrated landscape architects, when he was just 18 years old. Featuring a rare three-alcove arrangement and a striking concrete tea garden depicting ocean waves in colored cement, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property offers a unique glimpse into the origins of a modern master.

This 1916 Western-style house in Wake was built as a dental clinic with living quarters. Its corner tower and German siding made it a landmark of eastern Okayama.

Ten years in the building, this Taisho landowner's house anchors the medieval street grid of Bizen Fukuoka. It opens on scheduled days, with tea included.

A Taisho yakuimon gate in the Nagashiki garden on Konoshima, 1.3 metres wide, carrying a bracket block, a winged strut and close-set rafters. Registered 2024.

Egawa Saburohachi designed this cypress-bark worship hall of 1922 at Nakayama Shrine in Tsuyama, Okayama. Registered in 2021; the sanctuary behind dates to 1559.

Egawa Saburohachi built this 22-square-metre offering hall at Nakayama Shrine in Tsuyama, Okayama, in 1922. One bay spans three, and all four sides stand open.

Discover the Handayama Water Distribution Reservoir No. 3, a registered tangible cultural property in Okayama. Built in 1919, this rare circular brick-and-concrete reservoir remains in active service within the beautiful Handayama Botanical Garden.

The Himei Family Residence Main House in Kamogata, Asakuchi City, Okayama Prefecture, is the home of a distinguished medical family that served as official physicians to the lords of the Kamogata Domain since the Edo period. Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2015, this rare hybrid building combines a traditional irimoya-style Japanese residence with a Western-style medical clinic wing, offering valuable insight into the history of provincial medical architecture in Japan.

Muku Bridge is a stone bridge built in 1920 within the grounds of Tanjoji Temple in Kumenan Town, Okayama Prefecture. Spanning the legendary Katame River, this 7.3-meter-long, 2.6-meter-wide structure is a nationally registered tangible cultural property and an integral part of the historic landscape of the temple, which marks the birthplace of Honen, founder of the Jodo (Pure Land) sect of Buddhism.

The only one of six buildings at Yamanari Sake Brewery in Ibara, Okayama registered as a model of design, this 1915 parlor has a tokonoma alcove and garden veranda.

The Bell Tower Gate of Ryūjōin Temple in Tamano, Okayama Prefecture, is a rare hybrid structure built in 1922 combining a reinforced concrete lower story with granite and white tile finishes and a traditional wooden upper story with an irimoya roof. Registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property, it represents a unique fusion of Western and Japanese architectural traditions virtually unparalleled in the region.