Shōwa

Tanioka Memorial Hall, on the campus of Osaka University of Commerce in Higashi-Osaka, is a four-story reinforced concrete school building completed in 1935 as part of disaster reconstruction following the devastating Muroto Typhoon of 1934. With its symmetrical clock-tower façade, smooth modernist walls accented by arched and round porthole windows, and a soaring third- and fourth-floor atrium auditorium inside, it is one of the finest surviving early Shōwa school buildings in the Kansai region. In 2000 it became the first Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Higashi-Osaka City, and today it houses the Museum of Commercial History, dedicated to early modern Osaka's mercantile heritage.

Discover Tamade Bridge (Tamatebashi), a 1928 five-span suspension bridge over the Ishikawa River in Kashiwara, Osaka. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property features medieval European-style towers and is Japan's only five-span pedestrian suspension bridge.

At 127 square metres, this 1932 building is the largest registered structure at Chihaya Shrine, Osaka. Three gabled blocks push forward toward the approach.

This 1.6 square metre pavilion of 1928 shelters a natural stone basin at Chihaya Shrine, Osaka. Posts run to the ridge; two tiers of brackets carry the eaves.

Chihaya Shrine's 1928 worship hall, by Oe Shintaro, is open on all sides but for one set of rear doors, so the eye passes straight through to the forest.

Oe Shintaro designed this 1928 hall on the Chihaya Castle site in Osaka. Slender timbers and finely worked door fittings distinguish it. Registered in 2024.

Just 2.5 square metres, this 1932 subsidiary shrine at Chihaya Shrine in Osaka repeats the Main Hall's round columns, tie-rails and tall gable pendant.

A mid-Meiji farmhouse in Akagawa, Osaka, registered in 2025 as Asahi Ward's first listed building. Deep eaves, a wide odo door, an attic reached only by ladder.

Osaka's landmark observation tower in Shinsekai, rebuilt in 1956 by Naito Tachu after the 1912 original was lost. Decks at 87.5m and 94.5m. Registered in 2007.

Built in 1946 and moved in 1959, this registered Osaka tearoom houses three rooms for sencha, sukiya carpentry crossed with Chinese detail and Indian chintz walls.

The Tokajuku Classroom Building in Tondabayashi City, Osaka Prefecture, is a single-story wooden structure built in 1933 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Part of Tokajuku, one of Japan's pioneering private institutions for people with intellectual disabilities founded in 1916, the building is valued as a representative example of early Showa-period wooden educational architecture. Its simple yet warm design embodies the founding philosophy of Reverence for Life.

Discover Touka-juku Main Building, a 1933 wooden welfare facility in Tondabayashi, Osaka, registered as a national tangible cultural property. Learn about its pioneering history in disability welfare and its elegant early Showa architecture.

In Fukae, Osaka, the former Koda residence's inui storehouse is an earthen dan-gura raised against floods, its west wall set with twin round windows above a tiled fence.

In Fukae, Osaka, the former Koda residence's front gate stands between two storehouses, its deep eaves, thick doors and stone steps marking a former headman's standing.

In Fukae, Osaka, the former Koda residence's 1935 main house sets a farmhouse ground floor beneath a modern upper floor, and alone of the four is cited as a design model.

In Fukae, Osaka, the former Koda residence's storehouse is an earthen barn with its floor set in three tiers against floods, a raised central ridge hiding a half-floor.

The largest Fujii outbuilding, this early-Showa parlour pairs an eight-mat room with glazed screens and an alcove pierced by an Oribe window from the tea room.

Discover the Midō Building, a 1965 masterpiece by Takenaka Corporation on Osaka's prestigious Midosuji boulevard. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2024, this landmark showcases Arita-ware tile facades, innovative center-core design, and timeless urban elegance.

Completed in 1934 and designed by architect Yabe Matakichi, the former Kawasaki Savings Bank Fukushima Branch features a distinctive curved facade with Ionic giant-order columns. Now a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it serves as the headquarters of Minami Corporation in Osaka's Fukushima district.

Fujii Koji designed this Korien house in 1930 for an Osaka textile merchant. It retains its ventilation flues, chair-height rooms and original furniture.