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.

4,593 total Shōwa Period 1926 – 1989
Showing 2,421 – 2,440 of 4,593
Hiraoka Family Residence Barn
Tokushima 昭和中
Hiraoka Family Residence Barn

Hiraoka Family Residence Barn, Kaiyo: a 1954 barn with a potato store, cattle shed and sheltered work yard below, and tatami rooms with an alcove upstairs.

Hiraoka Family Residence South Wall
Tokushima 昭和前
Hiraoka Family Residence South Wall

Hiraoka Family Residence South Wall, Kaiyo: an early Showa plastered earthen wall, 13 meters long, on 3 courses of dressed sandstone, with a tall tiled ridge.

Fujita Family Residence Main House
Tokushima 昭和前
Fujita Family Residence Main House

A circa-1927 farmhouse on the Yoshino River delta in Kitajima, Tokushima, with a gabled tile roof, lean-to eaves all round, a three-room earth floor and storage.

Wadanoya Main Building Lower Wing
Tokushima 昭和中
Wadanoya Main Building Lower Wing

The lower wing of Wadanoya at the foot of Otakiyama in Tokushima, a timber shop of 1953 with a rice-cake toasting area, is a long-established local shop.

Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Museum (former Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Exchange)
Tochigi 昭和中
Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Museum (former Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Exchange)

The Ashio Copper Mine Telephone Museum in Nikko, a 1951 exchange at the mine that had Japan's first private telephone in 1886, looks like a modern house of its day.

Ota Family Residence Front Gate and Stone Wall
Tochigi 昭和前
Ota Family Residence Front Gate and Stone Wall

The Ota Family Residence Front Gate and Stone Wall in Sano is an early Showa granite gateway in a 3.9 m dressed-stone wall, its lintel topped by two carved lions.

Ogino Family Residence South Wall
Tochigi 昭和中
Ogino Family Residence South Wall

A board wall of about 1950 by the JR Ryomo Line in Ashikaga, 21 meters long and 2.4 meters high, with a lattice bar near the top and braces on its garden side.

Orihime Shrine Kagura Hall
Tochigi 昭和前
Orihime Shrine Kagura Hall

A small timber kagura hall of 1937 beside the great stairway of Orihime Shrine in Ashikaga, Tochigi, registered in 2004, on a low plinth with a hip-and-gable roof.

Orihime Shrine Main Buildings
Tochigi 昭和前
Orihime Shrine Main Buildings

The 1937 reinforced concrete main buildings of Orihime Shrine in Ashikaga, Tochigi, registered in 2004, with timber eaves and wings said to echo the Phoenix Hall of Byodoin.

Orihime Shrine Office
Tochigi 昭和前
Orihime Shrine Office

The 1937 timber office of Orihime Shrine in Ashikaga, Tochigi, registered in 2004, with a cusped-gable porch and a basement that makes its cliff side look two storeys high.

Orihime Shrine Temizuya
Tochigi 昭和前
Orihime Shrine Temizuya

A small 1937 purification pavilion on the approach to Orihime Shrine in Ashikaga, Tochigi, registered in 2004, built like the shrine in concrete with a timber gabled roof.

Kadoya Ryokan Annex
Tochigi 昭和前
Kadoya Ryokan Annex

Built around 1937 between two older buildings at Itamuro Onsen, the Kadoya Ryokan Annex sets plain tatami guest rooms against German plaster walls and sash windows.

Kadoya Ryokan Yusenkaku
Tochigi 昭和中
Kadoya Ryokan Yusenkaku

Tucked away at the innermost end of Itamuro Onsen in northern Tochigi Prefecture, Katoya Ryokan Yusenkaku is a graceful two-story wooden inn building completed in 1952. Together with the Main Building (1919) and the Annex (late Taisho to early Showa), it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2016. With its gable roof, irimoya-style entrance canopy, and tokonoma alcoves of finely selected woods, Yusenkaku embodies the renewed confidence of post-war Japanese inn architecture. Discover the strongly alkaline 'medicinal waters of Shimotsuke' alongside a rare ensemble of three eras of ryokan design.

Matsugamine Catholic Church
Tochigi 昭和前
Matsugamine Catholic Church

Matsugamine Catholic Church in Utsunomiya, built in 1932 to a design by Swiss architect Max Hinder, is a concrete church faced with Oya stone under twin towers.

Kamatsusawa Downstream Sabo Dam
Tochigi 昭和前
Kamatsusawa Downstream Sabo Dam

A 1932 mortared-stone sabo dam on the upper Inari River in Nikko, 25 m long and 17 m high, with a deep spillway and triangular wing walls. Registered in 2002.

Kamatsusawa Sabo Dam
Tochigi 昭和前
Kamatsusawa Sabo Dam

A 1933 sabo dam on the upper Inari River in Nikko, 64 m long and 20 m high, whose curved training walls and angled weir turn the falling water. Registered in 2002.

Former Nanma Hotel Annex (Mashiko Yuwakan)
Tochigi 昭和前
Former Nanma Hotel Annex (Mashiko Yuwakan)

The former Nanma Hotel annex of about 1929, moved from Nikko to Mashiko, Tochigi, was the wartime refuge of the then Crown Prince and keeps its Gozasho room.

Kogomedaira Sabo Dam
Tochigi 昭和前
Kogomedaira Sabo Dam

The Kogomedaira dam of 1931 in Nikko, Tochigi, a masonry gravity dam keyed into a gorge, is the uppermost of the Home Ministry era sabo dams on the Inari River.

Sugita Sake Brewery Oya Stone Storehouse
Tochigi 昭和中
Sugita Sake Brewery Oya Stone Storehouse

The Sugita Sake Brewery Oya Stone Storehouse in Oyama, Tochigi, built around 1947 for sweet potato shochu, pairs lower Oya stone walls with timber above them.

Tanuma Family Residence Front Gate
Tochigi 昭和前
Tanuma Family Residence Front Gate

The Tanuma Residence front gate in Ashikaga is a formal single-bay yakuimon of 1935, set back from the old Reiheishi road with wing walls and a stone forecourt. Private.