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.
This 132-metre concrete spillway, built in 1928 on the right bank of Onbara Dam in Kagamino, Okayama, bends twice to slow surplus water before it reaches the river.
Built in 1928 about 270 metres below Onbara Dam in Kagamino, Okayama, this small concrete settling basin is roofed with slabs on its hillside edges against debris.
Built in 1928 in Kagamino, Okayama, this concrete head tank takes water from a 2.3-kilometre channel, flushes out grit and feeds the plant's penstock.
Two granite walls laid in the diagonal tanizumi style in 1928, 68 metres in all, hold up the penstock route and main building of Heisakubara Power Station.
Heisakubara's 1928 concrete powerhouse in Kagamino, Okayama, joins a gabled generator hall to a flat-roofed wing with tall windows, and it still generates power.
Marumoto Sake Brewery Kettle Room, Okayama: a rice-steaming house of about 1932, 104 square metres on a trapezoid plan, with a monitor roof to let the steam escape.
Marumoto Sake Brewery Connecting Corridor, Okayama: an early Showa open loading bay of 123 square metres, flared in plan and trussed, beside the West Storehouse.
Mizote Family Residence Billiard Hall is a 1936 games room in Hayashima with a parquet floor, a built-in cue rack and scoreboard, and a plain Japanese exterior.
The Myokyoji Omizuya Purification Pavilion at Saijo Inari in Okayama is an open water shelter of 1954 whose carved brackets show a modern take on temple ornament.
The Myokyoji Sacred Horse Stable at Saijo Inari in Okayama is a small early Showa stable for a sacred horse statue, with a tiled gable roof and plaster walls.
The Myokyoji Sanko Tennosha Shrine at Saijo Inari in Okayama is a 1927 shrine whose beams are carved as dragons, by the local carpenter Asakusaya Shinzo.
The Myokyoji Niomon Gate at Saijo Inari in Okayama is a granite-clad concrete gate of 1957 with five domed towers, designed by the architect Kishida Hideto.
The Myokyoji Nobu and Aki Tennosha Shrine at Saijo Inari in Okayama is a tiny 1931 shrine whose porch, carved with a dragon and a phoenix, is large for its body.
The Myokyoji Yomori Tennosha Shrine at Saijo Inari in Okayama is an early Showa one-bay shrine with a railed veranda and porch beam ends carved in openwork.
The Tsukayama Brewery Facilities in Nago, Okinawa, are a 1928 main house and koji house, designated in 2009, joining an awamori distillery and a home in one L.
Arakaki Family Residence Main House in Naha is a 1956 single-storey timber home with a red-tiled hipped roof, standing within Meiji-era stonework. Registered 2007.
The Iko Pier of 1935 on Kuroshima in the Yaeyama Islands, Okinawa, runs 354 metres out to sea in stone and concrete and supported the island's fishing.
A 53-meter boundary wall of 1948 at an Ishigaki farmstead, rebuilt from rough limestone as four courses of long cut awaishi blocks, with a pair of stone gateposts.
The Onogoshi Drainage Tunnel, a 640 m concrete tunnel built in 1934 under Miyako's Ono forest, drained a marsh for farming, cut malaria mosquitoes, still in use.
The front gate of the Okinawa Hotel in Naha, built in 1961 in concrete, carries a gabled roof of red Ryukyu tiles in Okinawan style at the hotel entrance.