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.
A 1936 hilltop museum in Abashiri, Hokkaido by Tanoue Yoshiya: symmetrical plan, a red tower roof and geometric facade panels. Registered in December 2019.
The Iai Gakuin Auditorium in Hakodate, a 1935 Vories design registered in 2002, still seats about 600 on its original chairs for the school's morning worship.
The Isamigawa Bridge on the Former JNR Shihoro Line in Kamishihoro, Hokkaido, is a 4-metre concrete culvert of 1936 whose small arch follows a parabolic curve.
The Otofuke Tunnel of the Former JNR Shihoro Line in Kamishihoro, built in 1937 through frozen ground, curves for 165 metres behind a portal set aslant the track.
The Sannosawa Bridge of the Former JNR Shihoro Line, built in 1955 by Lake Nukabira in Kamishihoro, sets a 15-metre concrete arch between two smaller ones.
The Jusannosawa Bridge of the Former JNR Shihoro Line in Kamishihoro, built in 1938 near the old terminus, crosses a stream on five plain 10-metre concrete arches.
The Fifth Otofuke River Bridge of the Former JNR Shihoro Line in Kamishihoro, built in 1938, runs 109 metres on eight concrete arches with a 23-metre river span.
The Third Otofuke River Bridge on the Former JNR Shihoro Line in Kamishihoro, built in 1936, spans the river with a 32-metre RC arch, the widest of prewar Hokkaido.
The Sixth Otofuke River Bridge of the Former JNR Shihoro Line in Kamishihoro, built in 1938, crosses the river on seven filled-spandrel arches over 96 metres.
The Nukabira River Bridge of the Former JNR Shihoro Line, built in 1955 by Lake Nukabira in Kamishihoro, curves on four concrete arches and carries a nature trail.
Horoka Station Platform of the Former JNR Shihoro Line in Kamishihoro, built in 1939, is a low concrete strip 61 metres long, with track and points still beside it.
Rebuilt in brick after a 1951 fire, this Ebetsu clay pipe works made drainage pipe and flue liners. Registered in 2019, it now trades as EBRI, free to enter.
Built the year fire swept Hakodate in 1934, this timber house wraps a courtyard and wears battened clapboard. Registered in 2016. Private: view the exterior only.
A single-arch reinforced-concrete overpass carrying a footpath over the Hokutan colliery's coal railway at Yubari, its deck tilted to clear larger rolling stock.
A reinforced-concrete viaduct of seven semicircular arches, each spanning six metres, built in 1951 to carry the Takamatsu waste-rock line at the Yubari colliery.
A straight concrete tunnel seventy-three metres long, built in 1951 for the skip cars that hauled waste rock along the Takamatsu line, with portals at each end.
The west portal of the belt-conveyor tunnel on the Takamatsu waste-rock line: a concrete face nearly nine metres wide framing a modest semicircular opening.
This 1928 timber relay station in Nanporo, Hokkaido, lodged around 550 travellers a year until a railway closed it in 1931. Registered in 2006; exterior only.
A 94-metre coal railway bridge of about 1945 in Ashibetsu, Hokkaido, with a diesel locomotive still standing on its deck. Registered as a cultural property in 2009.
A 1938 rice granary built of Sapporo welded tuff at Takaoka in Ishikari, Hokkaido. Registered in 2024, it now houses the Higuchi Kiichiro Memorial Museum.