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.
The Kanda Shrine Main Hall of 1934 is a steel and concrete sanctuary that keeps timber proportions, with degumi brackets and doubled rafters. Registered in 2003.
The Kanda Shrine Mizugaki Fence of 1937 wraps 60 metres around the main hall: lattice above, cross-battens below, copper roof, registered for its landscape value.
Rebuilt in 1951 after the war, the main house of painter Kawabata Ryushi has staggered gabled wings, bamboo-faced walls and a 1954 middle gate leading to his studio.
Raised in 1938 and spared by the air raids, painter Kawabata Ryushi's studio is a column-free 60-mat room with a 4-meter coved ceiling for his huge exhibition works.
A tiny concrete-block shrine of about 1955 built by painter Kawabata Ryushi for his Buddhist statues: tiled gable outside, pointed vault and arched windows inside.
Added in 1955, this wing of painter Kawabata Ryushi's Tokyo home centers on a 17.5-mat room for viewing his Buddhist statues, with doors attributed to Sotatsu.
Built in 1932 at a Showa-dori corner in Ginza, the former Miyawaki Building packs three concrete storeys into 45 square metres on a trapezoid plan. Registered 2025.
The Former Mushakoji Saneatsu Residence in Chofu City, Tokyo, was built in 1955 for the novelist. Heavy mortar outside, light sukiya within. Open at weekends.
The Former Ministry of Education Building in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, dates from 1932 and survives inside a later high-rise. Scratch tile, large near-square windows.
A 1927 concrete villa in Kudankita, Tokyo, pairing Naito Tachu's 24cm load-bearing walls with Kigo Shichiro's Spanish detail. Registered in 2018; now kudan house.
A 1933 concrete boundary in Kudankita, Tokyo: a 4.1m tiled gate and 61m of wall with garage, matching the Yamaguchi mansion behind. Registered in 2018.
Just 1.8 m wide, this inner gate once stood at the street and was moved in 1962. On its mukuri roof, the courtyard it frames, and a conflict between sources.
The 1962 nagayamon of the former Yoshioka residence, assembled from salvaged timber: eight nyubyo studs, 150 Tokyo tramway setts, a hand-painted nameplate.
The Kiyokawa shop in Nihonbashi, Tokyo, a timber shop and house of about 1927 on a lane near Ningyocho, keeps fine traditional building amid the office towers.
The Onoya tabi shop at a Ginza crossing in Tokyo, a small timber building of 1951 on a five-sided plot, is a rare survivor of Ginza just after the war.
The Ginza Lion Building in Tokyo, built in 1934, houses a beer hall of tiled walls and a glass-tile mural that the Agency calls a masterpiece of its kind.
The Kurosawa Building in Ueno, Tokyo, a 1930 eye hospital, has Expressionist details, a rooftop ultraviolet therapy room and stained glass by Ogawa Sanchi.
Gengi Sanbo in Ogikubo, Tokyo, the 1955 sukiya home of Kadokawa Gen'yoshi, founder of Kadokawa Shoten, opens free to visitors as the Suginami Poetry House.
International Christian University Taizanso Front Gate, a thatched yakuimon of about 1936 whose beams reuse timber from Edo Castle's Saiwaibashi Gate.
International Christian University Taizanso Storehouse, a reinforced concrete kura of about 1936 in earthen style, with a raised storeroom and tiled gable roof.