Shōwa
Osaka · 昭和Browse Osaka’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
Toyonaka Catholic Church in Osaka, designed by the Czech architect Jan Josef Švagr in 1939, is a timber church with a bell tower and interior in Japanese style.
Karasunomiya Shrine Middle Gate and Openwork Fence in Osaka (1931) frames the main hall: a copper-roofed gate with lattice doors and a 30 m slate-roofed fence.
The Karasunomiya Shrine Worship Hall in Osaka, registered in 2008, is a hall of 1931 its gable filled with carved dragons, unlike the plain main hall.
Karasunomiya Shrine Main Hall in Osaka is a 1931 shinmei-style sanctuary 2.8 m long, with free-standing ridge posts, straight eaves and finials. Registered 2008.
Rebuilt in 1954 after a wartime air raid, the Kanda Shrine Kagura Hall opens its west side for rites by removing a post. The youngest of 12. What to see.
Built in 1935, the Kanda Shrine Saikan fits a full formal alcove into eight mats and lights its anteroom with a round lattice window. What to see and how to visit.
Completed in 1931 for an Osaka steel merchant, this concrete house closes the view at Otebashi bridge. Its Tatsuyama stone facing matches the old Sumitomo Building.
Built in 1932 as a spinning firm's clubhouse to a design by Setsu Watanabe, Jisen Kaikan in Kishiwada, Osaka, is a Spanish revival hall registered in 1997.
A narrow three storey timber townhouse of 1928 in Osaka's Semba district, the Kitano Residence used tile, copper and udatsu firewalls against fire. Registered 2006.
Built in 1953 as a coffee house a short walk from Tsutenkaku, Gallery Saikai sets a theatrical Osaka shopfront over a traditional townhouse plan. Registered in 2007.
A 1933 bank on the old Kishu highway in Kishiwada, its facade cut by an arch spanning two floors. Attributed to Watanabe Setsu and registered in 2006; now offices.
An early Showa barn on a Kusaka headman's estate in Higashiosaka, registered in 2024; the only non-Edo building of 12, with a gable entry and open roof frame.
A 1931 four-storey timber house in Sakai, Osaka, registered in 2002, designed by a doctor as his home and clinic in the image of a lakeside castle.
Rebuilt in 1932 after a fire to lodge an imperial prince, the Konishi Choyokan New Palace in Abeno Ward, Osaka, was raised for chairs and hung with a chandelier.
The Konishi Choyokan Moon-Viewing Pavilion of 1932 in Abeno Ward, Osaka, is a 12.8-metre vaulted walk with a matted room carried over the garden on posts.
An early Showa single-storey storehouse on the corner of a Takatsuki hill farmstead: 10 metres of white plaster, its door and small eaved window facing the house.
The Kobayashi newspaper shop in Hirano, Osaka, a concrete shop of 1929 with a timber house behind, fronts its arcade with pilasters and arched windows.
Early Showa annex of a Sakai farming estate, registered in 2002: a three-mat room with verandas on three sides and a bath, the smallest of ten buildings.
A 1935 wooden hall in Osaka's Edobori, pairing temple carpentry with the Konkokyo faith—a Sect Shinto founded 1859. Designed by Ikedaya Hisakichi; spared from wartime fires.
A 1942 lecture hall, also called the Shuyokan, on the east bank of the Amano River at Kongoji, Kawachinagano. Trusses span a bright 12-bay room lit by tall windows.