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.
Built in 1947 as an architect's own house and studio, this single-storey timber home in Yokoderacho, Shinjuku, pairs lattice doors with brick. Registered 2011.
A white 1936 school block beside a Tokyo geisha quarter: high windows to the street, wide ones to the yard. It survived the 1945 firebombing; registered in 2023.
Steel trusses carry the ceiling of this 1936 Tokyo school hall, leaving the floor clear of columns, while riveted steel columns hide in the walls. Registered 2023.
A 1938 L-shaped timber lodging house of 13 rooms in Ogikubo, Tokyo, registered in 2009, whose curved northwest corner is capped by a small copper-roofed dome.
The Solfeggio School in Mejiro, Tokyo, a concrete music school of 1967 designed by Yoshimura Junzo for his violinist wife, is an early work in his series for music.
The Tiger Building in Kuramae, Tokyo, built in the early Showa period as luxury elevator apartments, is an example of the rebuilding after the earthquake.
The Taiyo (Maruishi) Building in Kanda, Tokyo, an office block of 1931 by Yamashita Toshiro, is clad in scratch tiles and carved with animal and plant reliefs.
A 1927 Nishitokyo farmhouse with two front doors, a central corridor and refined tatami rooms under a Western roof truss; registered as a cultural property in 2018.
Tamura Sake Brewery's early Showa water mill in Fussa, Tokyo: a timber mill and an earthen store under one metal roof, beside a channel from the Tamagawa Aqueduct.
Built in 1928 in a Setagaya garden, this Ōya stone basin runs 1.2 by 4.1 metres, its corner blocks pushing the edging outward into a cross in plan. Registered 2007.
This 1928 stone gate in Setagaya opens 1.8 metres wide, its posts stacked seven courses of Ōya stone under a capstone, with steps, paving and a stone flower bed.
Built in 1934 by Diet member Tsukumo Kunitoshi in Ome, western Tokyo, this timber guest wing has a tea room, salvaged brewery beams and a hall above the Tama River.
A 28-metre reinforced concrete wall of around 1934 in Ome, western Tokyo, scored with joints imitating timber boarding and roofed in pantiles above high stone banks.
A timber gate of around 1934 in Ome, western Tokyo, its posts and roof frame built from polished cedar logs with the knots left showing, under a gabled pantile roof.
Built in 1932 in Shoan, Suginami Ward, this Tokyo house sets a flat-roofed Western parlour against a tiled irimoya gable. Registered nationally in January 2010.
Tsubame-yu, a working wooden bathhouse built in 1950 in Ueno, Taito Ward, Tokyo, became in 2008 the first public bathhouse in the city to be registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Famous for its early-morning soak from 6 a.m., its scalding water, and a striking rock formation made from real Mount Fuji lava, it offers an authentic encounter with postwar sento culture in the heart of Okachimachi.
This 1953 timber house in Midori, Sumida City, groups a formal wing with a tea room and drawing room. Registered in 2008, it opens only for rare guided viewings.
The bell tower of Tokyo Cathedral in Sekiguchi, built in 1964 to Kenzo Tange's design, is a 62-metre concrete tower tapering to a cross, with four bells.
Saint Mary's Cathedral in Sekiguchi, Tokyo, built in 1964 to Kenzo Tange's design, is formed of eight leaning concrete shells under a cross-shaped skylight.
Built in 1931 as a chemistry lab needing its own ventilation, West Building 1 was the first permanent building on Tokyo Tech's Ookayama campus, in Romanesque dress.