Shōwa

In Makabe, Sakuragawa, this early Showa gate of the Masubuchi Hiroichi family blends three gate types, munamon, yakuimon and udegimon, into one design.

Set back within the Masubuchi Hiroichi family lot in Makabe, Sakuragawa, this early Showa dozo storehouse has plastered walls and double-leaf fire shutters.

A reinforced concrete distribution tower built in 1932 in the historic Sannomaru district of Mito, Ibaraki. Designed by waterworks engineer Goto Tsurumatsu, the 21.6-meter cylindrical structure features Gothic-inspired ornament and fire-hose-motif reliefs. Registered Tangible Cultural Property, one of Japan's 100 Best Modern Waterworks, and JSCE Selected Civil Engineering Heritage.

A 22-meter reinforced concrete chimney at a sake brewery in Makabe, Sakuragawa, registered in 2004. Arched flue opening, firebrick lining, comb moulding on top.

An early Showa timber wing behind the main house on a Makabe plot in Sakuragawa City, with matted rooms, alcove furnishings and a south veranda. Listed in 2005.

Morito Bunshiro Shoten Store and Residence on Nakamachi Street in Ishioka is an Art Deco shop house of about 1930, registered in 2003, with a rendered mortar front.

A 1927 Stick Style school in Susai, Akaiwa, with clapboard and roughcast walls and a gambrel gable; moved at half size in 1984, now a free local history museum.

The Ibara Civic Hall Annex, located in central Ibara City in western Okayama Prefecture, is a two-story reinforced concrete structure completed in 1971 alongside the Main Hall. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2023, it embodies the legacy of postwar Japanese modernism through its exposed concrete finishes and distinctive vertical ventilation tower.

Completed in 1971, the Ibara Civic Hall Main Building is a striking reinforced concrete civic hall designed by Murayama Eikō of the Kansai Architectural Office. With its dramatic clock tower and diverse exposed concrete finishes, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2023, standing as a leading example of postwar modernist architecture in western Okayama.

Wooden photo studio built in Tsuyama in 1929, with a semicircular reception room, paired arched windows and a north clerestory for daylight. Still a working studio.

A 1927 granite myojin torii at the head of Oura Shrine's approach in Asakuchi, 6.5 m tall, its plaque written by Prime Minister Inukai Tsuyoshi; registered in 2019.

Worship, offering and prayer halls in a row before the main hall of Oura Shrine, Asakuchi; remodeled about 1927, registered in 2019; carved beasts on the porch.

The 1927 sanctuary of Oura Shrine, Asakuchi, on a high stone platform: hip-and-gable copper roof, stacked gables and carved brackets; registered in 2019.

Completed in 1957 alongside the main block, this three-storey chamber by Maekawa carries an unbroken line of perforated brick beneath its cantilevered top floor.

Maekawa returned to his own Okayama site in 1971 with struck concrete instead of glass: a lattice facade over an open ground-floor colonnade, base-isolated in 2004.

Kunio Maekawa's first government building, completed 1957 on the site of Okayama Castle, registered in 2024. Piloti, raised corridor, black curtain wall.

A 1930 reinforced-concrete book store beside its 1902 brick twin at Okayama Asahi High School, its cornices and windows matched so the pair reads as one.

Built in 1927 at the centre of a Kurashiki school campus, this timber hall still hosts judo and kendo practice. A rare surviving prewar budojo, registered in 2007.

At the centre of Oku Kōmyōen, a Hansen's disease sanatorium on Nagashima, this 1941 timber hall bears three arched windows and was listed for its striking design.

This 1939 wooden schoolhouse, Kōmyō Gakuen, taught children at the Oku Kōmyōen sanatorium on Nagashima, a rare surviving school built inside such an institution.