Shōwa

The Yasuyo Building at Shinjuku's east exit in Tokyo, a 1968 tower of octagons stacked at shifting angles, is a gem of architect Taniguchi Yoshiro's mature years.

My House, the architect Seike Kiyoshi's own 1954 residence in Ota, Tokyo, is a 51-square-metre one-room concrete house registered in 2017 as a standard for design.

Waro Flat No. 4 is a 1936 wooden apartment house on an Azabudai lane in Tokyo, registered in 2019. Its eight dwellings all differ and each gains a south window.

Built around 1928 in Tokushima for a doctor who had studied in Berlin, this three-storey concrete house has a viewing tower, a wave-plan terrace and mustard walls.

Built in 1938 and covering 517 square meters, the Anrakuji Temple Main Hall in Mima, Tokushima is a seven-bay Shin hall with a carved porch, registered in 2009.

The Kawai General Store in Higashiiya, Tokushima, a tall timber store of 1934 facing the old road with an earth-floored shop, is part of the historic roadside scene.

Kita Yakuten in Nishiiya, Miyoshi, Tokushima, is a general store of about 1940 on the main road whose west side stands on posts over the Iya River above a basement.

An early Showa gate and board fence: a tiled single-bay gate topped with shachihoko, a copper-roofed yamato-uchi fence and a footing carved with a pine-bark pattern.

A timber shed of just eleven square metres behind a 1959 bank branch in Miyoshi, Tokushima, built to house motorcycles. Registered as a cultural property in 2023.

Built in 1959 on the old Iyo Kaido in Miyoshi, Tokushima, this concrete bank branch wears washed mortar scored to imitate cut stone. Registered in 2023.

Completed in 1934 in Miyoshi City, Tokushima, this symmetrical timber hall with arched upper windows and a gambrel roof is the prefecture's last wooden town hall.

Completed in 1932, Saienji Main Hall in Yoshinogawa, Tokushima, clads a Shin Buddhist hall in weatherboard and sash windows, built for a priest who wanted pews.

Saikyoji's 1930 sutra repository in Mima, Tokushima, packs a dormer gable, a cusped-gable porch and Edo-period bracket work onto a plastered 47-square-metre store.

Built in 1928 at Nyuta-cho in Tokushima City, this two-story concrete retirement house hides its structure under stone-like washed mortar. Registered in 2014.

At Nyuta-cho in Tokushima City, this pair of concrete gateposts of about 1928 carries temple-derived capitals and an iron arch with a lamp. Registered 2014.

The main hall of Senkoin in Awa, Tokushima, an early Showa Shingon hall with a tiled gable roof, front porch and side aisles, stands at the head of a valley fan.

The Takahara Building in Tokushima, a small concrete building of 1932 with scratch-tile walls and a tower-like third floor, is a fine early Showa example.

A rare purpose-built puppet playhouse on a Tokushima high-school campus, built in 1965 with a two-tier stage and box seats, home to a living Awa puppet-theater tradition.

Hikiji-do is a small wooden hall built in 1928 in Tsurugi Town, Tokushima Prefecture. As the 36th sacred site of the Habashikoku 88-site pilgrimage—a regional miniature of the famous Shikoku circuit—it preserves a local Buddhist tradition. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2017, the hall is notable for its hipped roof and distinctive front porch formed by an extended roofline.

Hiraoka Family Residence Kitchen, Kaiyo: an early Showa cooking shed behind the main house, hipped at one end, gabled at the other, with an old well pump.