Shōwa

The rice storehouse of the Hino Residence in Aki-Takata, Hiroshima, built around 1927. A two-storey plaster kura facing the river, it once adjoined a rice-milling shed.

The Western-style annexe of the Hino Residence in Aki-Takata, Hiroshima, built in 1936, with offices below and a meeting room above. Paper roller blinds survive inside.

Discover the Hiroshima University Junior and Senior High School Auditorium, a 1927 Romanesque-style reinforced concrete hall that survived the atomic bombing. Registered as a national tangible cultural property and designated as a hibaku building, it stands as a symbol of resilience and architectural heritage in Hiroshima.

Built in 1934 in Tojo, Hiroshima, this 78-meter timber shop raises its central bay and adds a monitor roof for daylight. It still builds rock drills today.

Completed in 1937 at right angles to the older shop, this 44-meter timber workshop carries king post trusses, ranked windows, and a washed-aggregate dado.

Built about 1939 for the factory workforce, this 18-square-meter timber block was registered for its doubled glazing and its original flush plumbing system.

Kenzo Tange completed this Takamatsu government office in 1958, recasting the columns and beams of Japanese tradition in concrete over an open civic piloti.

Discover the Isono Family Residence in Zentsuji, Kagawa — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1930 that beautifully combines traditional Japanese residential design with a charming Western-style wing. Explore this architectural gem near the birthplace of Kobo Daishi.

The No. 5 warehouse at Kamebishi in Hikita, Kagawa is an early-Showa moromi store whose red-ochre street walls carry the brewery's palette across the road.

The No. 3 warehouse at Kamebishi in Hikita, Kagawa now stores moromi, but a raised roof monitor for venting heat points to its origins as a boiler room.

The No. 13 warehouse at Kamebishi in Hikita, Kagawa is an early-Showa store with a roof monitor and red-ochre walls, closing the street beside the Red Gate.

Discover the Karato-oka no Shimizu Communal Water Station, a 1929 granite spring-water facility on Teshima Island, Kagawa Prefecture. This registered tangible cultural property connects the legend of Kobo Daishi with Seto Inland Sea island life and art.

A row of six rental shops in central Noma, Shodoshima, built in 1932 by the Ishii soy-brewing family, its tiled range facing the road apart from the estate.

A small 1941 barn on the Ishii estate in Noma, Shodoshima, on a lane below the storehouse: a plain earthen-walled shed anchoring a corner of the brewing yard.

An early-Showa annex on the Ishii estate in Noma, Shodoshima, on a stone wall below a garden: storage below, a room above, walls of charred cedar and white plaster.

Discover Kotohira Town Public Hall, a stunning 1934 wooden Japanese public hall registered as a national tangible cultural property. Located near the famous Kotohira-gu Shrine in Kagawa Prefecture, this irimoya-style building features a grand 300-seat hall, coffered ceilings, and a beautiful cherry blossom garden with a haiku monument by Yosa Buson.

Discover Komesse Utazu, a 1936 rice warehouse turned community hub in Kagawa Prefecture. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property tells the story of Utazu's prosperous past as a vital port town on the Seto Inland Sea.

Discover the Sakai Soy Sauce Industry Hydraulic Accumulator Shed, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property on Shodoshima Island, Kagawa. This early Showa-era structure preserves a rare hydraulic pressing device that reveals the technological modernization of Japan's traditional soy sauce brewing.

At the south end of the platform shelters, this covered steel overpass links the depot with both island platforms on a through Pratt truss. Erected in 1927.

At JR Tadotsu, where Shikoku's railways began, a 19-meter steel turntable still turns within a rare pit of cut granite, a working survivor of the steam age.