Shōwa

A 1936 half-timbered mansion in central Sapporo, built as the new wing of the Mitsui villa and the governor's residence since 1953. House and garden are free.

This 1928 timber store at Nakashibetsu in eastern Hokkaido lifts its floor 60 cm off the ground and breaks its roof into a gambrel pierced by four dormers.

Built in 1928 at Nakashibetsu in eastern Hokkaido, this small timber shed carries a square lantern turret windowed on all four faces. Registered in 2009.

A 1927 forestry research building in Ebetsu, Hokkaido, with a brick ground floor under a half-timbered upper storey. Registered in 2001, it now houses a cafe.

Erimo's 1928 concrete lighthouse was retired in 1978, its hill cut away for a park while the tower stayed put. Look for the corbelled arch and dentil cornice.

Hongyoji Old Ossuary in Kushiro, Hokkaido is a 1931 charnel hall linked to the main hall, registered in 2025 for how its solid exterior shapes the compound.

A 1937 timber schoolhouse in Hashimoto, Wakayama, designated an Important Cultural Property in 2014 and still holding classes. A 98-metre range, four wings.

The Kongobuji Temple Kondo (1932) and Konpon Daito (1937) hide concrete frames under timber. See the 48-meter pagoda's mandala interior and how to visit both.

Ichiki Ryokan Entrance Building is a small 1937 hall in Kainan, Wakayama, whose black-stone entry floor leads to corridors joining three guest buildings of the inn.

Ichiki Ryokan New Building is an early Showa guest wing at the back of a Kainan inn, with five self-contained sukiya rooms whose verandas overlook the Miya River.

Ichiki Ryokan Gate and Wall fronts the road to Chohoji in Kainan, Wakayama: a 1937 cedar-bark gate with knotted posts and a plaster wall skirted with split logs.

A 1970 hipped-and-gabled gatehouse facing the lane at a Kinokawa farm estate, with double doors, a wicket, a barn and a boat-hull-ceiling room; registered in 2023.

The Ueda family's main house, built around 1929 on the Kinokawa's south bank in Hashimoto, Wakayama, pairs a traditional hipped roof with a quietly modernised plan.

A small barn in Kimino, Wakayama, whose ridgepole went up on March 5, 1957, framed in new cypress and chestnut salvaged from an older building; registered in 2019.

A detached room of around 1957 in Kimino, Wakayama, built of fine cypress, with a black fukiyose batten ceiling, kumiko latticework and views east; registered 2019.

The Okamoto storehouse in Hashimoto, Wakayama, built in 1962, is a two-storey plastered kura under a separately set roof, standing northwest of the main house.

The annex of the Okamoto Residence in Hashimoto, Wakayama, built about 1965, is a two-room wing linked to the main house, with an alcove and pierced transoms.

Kada Family Residence Front Gate, an early Showa gate in Wakayama City, pairs a central gate with two side doors under stepped gables of fine cypress and zelkova.

Kada Family Residence Koshikake Machiai, an early Showa waiting bench in a Wakayama tea garden, uses log posts and rafters, a lattice window and a privy behind.

Kada Family Residence Main House, a 1929 one-storey home in Wakayama City, sets its rooms in a stepped plan along the garden under three gabled entrance roofs.