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.
An early Showa zelkova gate on Toyoma's main street in Tome City, with a one-board transom, carved brackets and a pendant pierced with cranes. Registered 2021.
An early Showa shop storehouse on Toyoma's main street, Tome City: hipped roof, stone-clad base, barred glass doors and an upstairs alcove room. Registered in 2021.
A small early Showa document storehouse on Toyoma's main street, Tome City, with copper-clad eaves and stone vents, paired with the shop storehouse. Registered 2021.
The Sairi Yashiki Outdoor Lamp in Marumori, Miyagi, is an early Showa garden lamp: a granite column topped with an iron post, S-curved supports and a glass globe.
The Sairi Yashiki Stone Utility Pole in Marumori, Miyagi, is a 5.4-metre granite power pole with its insulator, a relic of the Saito family's electric light company.
The Sairi Yashiki Lightning Rod Tower in Marumori, Miyagi, is a 26-metre early Showa steel truss for a private home, said to reflect an owner's fear of thunder.
A tiny sukiya-style well house of about 1939 on the Sato estate in Ogawara, Miyagi, with log posts, a timber well curb and a west face of diamond lattice.
A garden wall of about 1939 inside the Sato estate in Ogawara, Miyagi, 75 metres long, faced in split bamboo on one side, with a diamond-patterned gate.
A two-storey storehouse of about 1939 in Ogawara, Miyagi, 13 metres long, with clay-sealed openings in torii-shaped frames, a king post truss and a T-shaped stair.
The yakuimon gate and 54-metre boundary wall of about 1939 on the Oshu Kaido in Ogawara, Miyagi, heavy posts below a light roof, visible from the street.
A courtyard house of about 1939 built by a soy sauce brewing family in Ogawara, Miyagi, with more than 30 rooms, tatami throughout and just two Western rooms.
A tiny shinmei-style shrine on the Sato estate in Ogawara, Miyagi, first built as a pre-war hoanden and moved here after 1945, with ridge posts and six katsuogi.
An early Showa stone torii, 2.4 metres high, marking the household-god precinct of the Sato estate in Ogawara, Miyagi, its round pillars leaning slightly inward.
Shop and house of 1936 for a Sendai miso maker on Route 48 in Aoba Ward, a two-storey gabled shop with a house behind, in the segai-zukuri style of old Sendai.
Retirement house of 1954 at a fishing family's compound on Tashirojima, Ishinomaki: two storeys, with bay windows and a reception room facing the sea.
The Mikoshi-den at Tsushima Shrine in Tome City, Miyagi, was donated in 1928 together with the mikoshi itself by Sato Tetsuro, operator of the Sanuma Railway. It marked the end of a decade-long reconstruction after the catastrophic 1912 fire, and in 2024 it was added to Japan's national register of tangible cultural properties alongside the shrine's main and worship halls.
A 2.9 by 2.1 meter charm booth of 1927 before the Sadayoshi Mausoleum Hall, with a hip-and-gable copper roof and glazed doors. Still used for charms and goshuin.
A carved hexagonal hall of 1927 over the grave of Taira no Sadayoshi, the temple's main hall until 1999. Old timbers, wind and thunder gods, sutra copying inside.
A three-bay, two-storied gate built in 1932 by Kesen carpenter Hanawa Kikuzo, its upper half crowded with carved lions, monkeys and zodiac animals. Registered 2018.
An open belfry of 1932 by Kesen carpenters with round posts, doubled tie beams, lattice transoms, brackets and a coffered ceiling. Its Kyoto-cast bell came in 1933.