Shōwa

An early Showa two-storey storehouse in Kasamatsu, Gifu, raised on a tortoise-shell stone base with heavy clay shutters and registered in 2017 for its streetscape.

Early Showa gate and 18-meter wall of the Wada house in Kasamatsu, Gifu: black plaster toward the street, bamboo and cedar bark toward the garden. Registered 2017.

A 1934 guest pavilion at Hida Furukawa's Hourai sake brewery: clay storehouse walls, a stone-effect mortar face to the river, tatami below and Western room above.

Early Showa wooden clinic on a corner in Aburatsu, Nichinan, Miyazaki, with tall windows on both floors, Western rooms below and Japanese rooms above. Private.

Guest annex of the Suzuki Ryokan in Aburatsu, Nichinan, built in the early Showa period when the port flourished, with one room on each floor and a small wing.

Early Showa storehouse at the Suzuki Ryokan in Aburatsu, Nichinan: two storeys of white plaster with a band under the eaves and a partly brick doorway.

West main building of the Suzuki Ryokan in Aburatsu, Nichinan, added in the early Showa period, with the entrance and kitchen below and five rooms upstairs.

Early Showa guest annex of the Suzuki Ryokan in Aburatsu, Nichinan, with a Japanese room, a Western room, a bath and solid plastered gables at each end.

The Tsukabaru Dam of 1938 in northern Miyazaki, a concrete gravity dam for hydropower with eight radial gates, was then the tallest in Japan at 87 metres.

A 1929 concrete lighthouse on Cape Toi, Miyazaki, registered in 2019, with an octagonal tower and roof garden, and the only lighthouse in Kyushu open to climb.

The Hanamine Bridge of 1929 over a historic canal in Nichinan, Miyazaki, rests on timber legs spread at about 45 degrees, a rare survival of its type.

Behind the main house sits Furusawa Brewery's early-Shōwa bottling room, the smallest on the site. A pediment over its doorway marks the shift from cask to bottle.

Standing on the cliffs of Hyuga Cape at the eastern tip of the Hososhima Peninsula in Miyazaki Prefecture, Hososhima Lighthouse is an eleven-meter white cylindrical concrete tower with a remarkable history. First lit in 1910 only to burn down twelve days later, it was rebuilt in its current form in 1941 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2019. Architectural details such as the semicircular arched entrance and bold triangular brackets are valued examples of early-Showa design, and in 2017 it became Miyazaki's first 'Lovers' Lighthouse.' Combined with the columnar cliffs of Mt. Umagase and the legendary Cross Sea, it is one of Hyuga's most breathtaking coastal destinations.

Standing quietly in the historic port district of Aburatsu in Nichinan City, Miyazaki Prefecture, Mitsuo Shoten is a wooden, tile-roofed two-story building constructed around 1929 in the pseudo-Western signboard architecture style. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2006, it is a rare southern example of an architectural fashion that swept through Tokyo and Osaka in the early Showa era — a testament to Aburatsu's prosperity during the legendary tuna boom.

Built in 1932, the Main Gate Gateposts of the Miyazaki Prefectural Office span 8.1 metres, with octagonal piers whose caps match the parapet of the building behind.

Built in 1932, the East Gate Gateposts of the Miyazaki Prefectural Office span 5.4 metres, with square piers and one north-side pier marking a secondary entrance.

The Miyazaki Prefectural Government Main Building, completed in 1932, is a striking Neo-Gothic structure of reinforced concrete with three above-ground stories and a basement. The fourth-oldest active prefectural main office in Japan — and the very oldest in Kyushu — it was designed by Oshio Akira and built by Obayashi Corporation. Inside, visitors find granite from Hiroshima's Kurahashi Island (the same Diet Stone used in Japan's National Diet Building), fossil-bearing marble handrails from Mount Gion in Miyazaki, and eight stained-glass round windows in an arrow-feather pattern. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2017, the building welcomes visitors with free guided tours on the first Sunday of each month.

The 1933 portal of a 696-metre water conduit below Aoshita No. 1 Dam in Sendai. Pilasters and a machicolated cornice frame the arch of this registered entrance.

Completed in 1934 on the Aoshita River near Sendai, this working waterworks dam stands 13.4 metres high, and its cobblestone spillway is seen from the crest bridge.

A reinforced concrete cylinder of 1933 rising from a reservoir near Sendai, 15.5 metres tall. Three intake mouths at differing depths draw the cleanest layer.