Shōwa

The North Building of Nangu Taisha's Saikan in Tarui, Gifu, built around 1961. Its upstairs west room holds a wedding altar and coffered ceiling; registered in 2024.

The South Building of Nangu Taisha's Saikan in Tarui, Gifu (c. 1961). It held guest rooms and a priests' purification bath, with transoms carved in plum and bamboo.

At the Hanada-Imai Residence in Mimayano, Gero, one early-Showa building combines a watermill, a miso store and a shed. A rare survival showing how a large farm worked.

The Hanada-Imai Gate and Fence in Mimayano, Gero, date to about 1956. A plaster wall runs 38 metres west from the main house, with a simple bracketed gate beside it.

The Yasuda Family Residence Main House, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on the old Nakasendo highway in Kakamigahara, Gifu, was once an inn called 'Wakatakeya.' Its gray plaster facade and lattice windows harmonize with neighboring heritage townhouses to preserve the historic post town landscape of Unuma-juku, near Matsuo Basho's waki-honjin and the National Treasure Inuyama Castle.

The Ohiroma-tō (Grand Hall Building) of Yatsusankan in Furukawa, Hida City, Gifu Prefecture, is a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in 1935. Its second floor houses a magnificent 100-tatami grand hall featuring a tokonoma alcove, staggered shelving, and a built-in writing alcove — a refined shoin-style space crafted with premium timber by Hida's master carpenters.

Discover the Yamagami Sabo Dam in Nakatsugawa, Gifu Prefecture—a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1940. Learn about its role in protecting the city after the devastating 1932 Yotsumegawa debris flow disaster.

Discover the Yamazakura Shrine Fire Watchtower in Takayama, Gifu — a nationally registered tangible cultural property with roots in the Edo-period firefighting tradition and a legendary horse named Yamazakura.

The Former Toyama Clinic is an early Showa-period Western-style wooden building registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in the historic port district of Aburatsu, Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture. A testament to the modernization of a town that prospered through tuna fishing and Obi cedar trade, it invites visitors to explore Aburatsu's rich architectural heritage alongside the Red Brick Hall and Horikawa Canal.

Suzuki Ryokan Kita-Hanare is a two-story wooden annex building from the early Showa period, located in the historic port town of Aburatsu, Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture. Registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it stands alongside the main building, west main building, east annex, and storehouse as part of a comprehensive ryokan complex that reflects the golden age of Aburatsu's tuna fishing and Obi cedar timber industries.

Discover Tsukabaru Dam in Miyazaki Prefecture, a 1938 gravity concrete dam standing 87 meters tall. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property and Modern Industrial Heritage, it showcases cutting-edge pre-war construction technology amid the mountains of Kyushu.

Cape Toi Lighthouse in Kushima City, Miyazaki Prefecture, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property first lit in 1929. Standing atop a 240-meter sea cliff, this is Kyushu's only climbable lighthouse, featuring a distinctive octagonal tower and innovative rooftop garden design. Visit this unique destination where wild Misaki horses — a designated National Natural Monument — roam freely alongside sweeping Pacific Ocean panoramas and subtropical cycad forests.

The Hanamine Bridge, spanning the upper reaches of the Horikawa Canal in Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture, is a wooden brace-type road bridge built in 1929. As one of the few surviving examples of this construction method in Japan, it is registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property and recognized as a Heritage of Civil Engineering.

Behind the main house sits Furusawa Brewery's early-Shōwa bottling room, the smallest on the site. A pediment over its doorway marks the shift from cask to bottle.

Standing on the cliffs of Hyuga Cape at the eastern tip of the Hososhima Peninsula in Miyazaki Prefecture, Hososhima Lighthouse is an eleven-meter white cylindrical concrete tower with a remarkable history. First lit in 1910 only to burn down twelve days later, it was rebuilt in its current form in 1941 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2019. Architectural details such as the semicircular arched entrance and bold triangular brackets are valued examples of early-Showa design, and in 2017 it became Miyazaki's first 'Lovers' Lighthouse.' Combined with the columnar cliffs of Mt. Umagase and the legendary Cross Sea, it is one of Hyuga's most breathtaking coastal destinations.

Standing quietly in the historic port district of Aburatsu in Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture, Mitsuo Shoten is a wooden, tile-roofed two-story building constructed around 1929 in the pseudo-Western signboard architecture style. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2006, it is a rare southern example of an architectural fashion that swept through Tokyo and Osaka in the early Showa era — a testament to Aburatsu's prosperity during the legendary tuna boom.

The Miyazaki Prefectural Government Main Building, completed in 1932, is a striking Neo-Gothic structure of reinforced concrete with three above-ground stories and a basement. The fourth-oldest active prefectural main office in Japan — and the very oldest in Kyushu — it was designed by Oshio Akira and built by Obayashi Corporation. Inside, visitors find granite from Hiroshima's Kurahashi Island (the same Diet Stone used in Japan's National Diet Building), fossil-bearing marble handrails from Mount Gion in Miyazaki, and eight stained-glass round windows in an arrow-feather pattern. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2017, the building welcomes visitors with free guided tours on the first Sunday of each month.

Three-story cedar inn at Kamasaki Onsen, rebuilt 1941 after flood damage. Cedar through-pillars run from basement to top floor. National Cultural Property, 2016.

Discover the Kakuboshi Store, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Kesennuma, Miyagi. This early Showa-era kura-style building survived the 2011 tsunami and was painstakingly rebuilt, standing today as a symbol of resilience and traditional craftsmanship.

Completed in 1930, this L-shaped classroom building gathers its arch, stone cladding, and rooftop tower at the center of a rare symmetrical facade.