Shōwa
昭和Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
Kayashima Sake Brewery Well House in Kunisaki, Oita, is a 12 m² early Showa gabled shelter over a cut-stone brewing well, its open south end hung with a sacred rope.
Kayashima Sake Brewery Wooden Wall in Kunisaki, Oita, is a 65-meter roofed wall of 1935 on the south edge: brick base, timber bays every ken, sheet-iron roof.
The Sunori Bridge of 1927 in Innai, Usa, Oita, is a slender two-span stone arch bridge, 40 metres long, set lightly 17 metres above the river in its gorge.
The Takaiwa Bridge of 1928 in Innai, Usa, Oita, spans the Era River with a flat stone arch of 27 metres, one of 75 stone bridges that survive in the Innai area.
Added around 1945, this 51 square metre annexe is the only building on the Hisatsune estate at Nakatsu not dating from 1924. Flues under its floor heat the room.
A 17-square-meter classical meter house of 1927 on low ground north of Beppu's Asami water plant, with a podium, columns, ornate capitals and arched window frames.
Beppu Tower in Oita, designed by Naito Tachu and completed in 1957 for a hot spring expo, rises 90 metres on a shaft that tapers from octagon to triangle.
A single-storey reception wing of 1937 joined to the Hoashi main house in Hetsugi, Oita. Its eight-mat room pairs shoin style with modern touches. Registered 2006.
The youngest of the temple's 11 registered buildings at Usa in Oita, this 107-square-metre retiring hall of the early Showa era shows free sukiya detailing.
Saikai Bridge in Nagasaki, completed in 1955, crosses the Ino-ura Strait on a 216-metre steel arch, Japan's first strait crossing and a post-war landmark.
Two tiers of diagonally set basalt run 218 metres along this Hirado hillside, coursed and hexagonal stonework flanking two stairways of Aō stone. Registered 2008.
A 1939 timber house in a Tabira valley, Hirado, layering three roof forms over 317 square metres, its main reception room in the southeast corner. Registered 2008.
Behind the Edo brewhouses at Imazato Sake Brewery in Hasami, Nagasaki, this early Showa rice-washing shed has a sheet-iron roof, a king post truss and a ridge vent.
The largest building at Imazato Sake Brewery in Hasami, Nagasaki, this early Showa brewhouse has two full storeys and, unlike its gabled neighbours, a hipped roof.
The Unzen Kanko Hotel of 1935 in Nagasaki, built for foreign visitors by Takenaka Komuten, rises from lava stone to log work to half-timbering in Alpine-lodge style.
Kameoka Shrine Offering Hall and Climbing Corridor, from the early Showa era, joins two 1880 halls with a vaulted ceiling and a corridor arched like a drum bridge.
Kancho Bridge in Sasebo, a steel pony truss of 1954, spans the fast tidal narrows of Shionome east of Hario Island and served the post-war trunk road.
The Former Fukko Pottery Works Painting Workshop in Hasami is a 1926 timber shed, 23 m long under a truss roof, where porcelain was dried and painted before firing.
The Former Fukko Pottery Works Forming Workshop in Hasami is a 1926 timber shed, 32.6 m long under a truss roof, where porcelain was shaped. It is now monné porte.
The Former Fukko Pottery Works Office in Hasami, Nagasaki, is a 1926 timber office with painted clapboard and long window bands, now the café monné legui mooks.