Shōwa

Discover Isagoya Ryokan, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Minobu, Yamanashi. This three-story wooden inn features exquisite hinoki staircases, ajiro ceilings, and a fascinating history as a relocated early Showa-era building on the pilgrimage route to Kuonji Temple.

Discover Iwai Bridge, a 1930s concrete arch bridge and Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Katsunuma, Yamanashi. Known as "Megane-bashi," this elegant landmark witnessed the rise of Japan's wine industry and offers scenic walks amid vineyards and heritage sites.

Discover Iwado Segi Bunsuiguchi, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Koshu City, Yamanashi Prefecture. This 1927 reinforced concrete cylindrical water diversion uses the siphon principle to equally distribute agricultural water into three channels—a rare surviving example of early Showa-era irrigation engineering in Japan.

Discover Shojuken Nagasaki, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Minami-Alps City, Yamanashi. This 1926 kura-zukuri confectionery shop stands at a key bend on the old Fujikawa Highway, preserving the atmosphere of the historic Barazawa post town.

Discover Oichi-kan, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Shimobe Onsen, Yamanashi Prefecture. This three-story wooden ryokan, founded in 1875, features a legendary cave rock bath fed by a natural spring once used by the warlord Takeda Shingen.

Nestled on a hillside in Fujikawa Town, Yamanashi Prefecture, Tsukiyone Community Hall is a wooden single-story assembly building constructed in 1928. With its dignified irimoya-zukuri roof and 60-tatami grand hall, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property has served the community for nearly a century. Surrounded by heritage terraced rice paddies, it offers an authentic glimpse into Japan's rural mountain village culture.

The Greenbank Chapel at Yamanashi Eiwa Junior and Senior High School is a 1949 auditorium of a Canadian Methodist mission school in Kofu City. Featuring an elegant ship-bottom ceiling and pipe organ, it was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2022. A symbol of postwar reconstruction, the chapel continues to serve as a place of worship and learning.

Discover the Daiichi Daidogawa Bridge, a designated Important Cultural Property in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture. Built in 1954, this pioneering prestressed concrete railway bridge still carries trains on the Shigaraki Kohgen Railway and stands as a milestone in Japanese civil engineering history.

Andrews Memorial Hall in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture, is the very first architectural work in Japan by William Merrell Vories, the American-born architect who designed more than 1,600 buildings nationwide. Reusing materials from the original 1907 hall and rebuilt in 1935, it is also revered as the birthplace of the Omi Brotherhood and is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

Discover the Vories Memorial Hospital Chapel, a 1937 wooden chapel designed by American architect William Merrell Vories in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property featuring semicircular arches, exposed timber trusses, and a moving history as a place of prayer for tuberculosis patients.

Built in 1944 at Omi Jingu in Otsu, this 101-square-metre entrance block sets a dormer gable over its carriage porch. Registered in 1998; exterior viewable.

This twelve-square-metre covered stair at Omi Jingu, built in 1944, is the only corridor there given a fire door and a tile-capped fire wall. Registered 1998.

A 1944 rest house at Omi Jingu in Otsu, framed with round posts and bracket arms under a tiled roof. Now a sweets shop, it is the one visitors may enter.

The east and south wings of the 1940 shrine office at Omi Jingu in Otsu, 246 square metres. A curved gable marks the guest entrance, a lower ridge the everyday door.

The tiled north and west wings of the 1940 shrine office at Omi Jingu in Otsu, 175 square metres. A dormer gable on the west face vents steam from the bath below.

A 1944 watch house of 39 square metres at Omi Jingu, made by closing one bay of the outer colonnade. Small gable-end eaves separate it from its twin across the gate.

The smallest registered building at Omi Jingu: an eight-square-metre raised-floor storehouse of 1940, roofed in cypress bark like the sanctuary it stands behind.

The 1940 hall at Omi Jingu in Otsu where food offerings are prepared, 53 square metres, with entrances north and south so the work can flow in one direction.

A nine-square-metre covered stair of 1944 at Omi Jingu in Otsu, gabled where it meets buildings and single-sloped over the steps between them. Registered in 1998.

The 1944 amulet office at Omi Jingu in Otsu, 39 square metres, attached to the tower gate. Square and round posts are used by position, with boat brackets above.