Shōwa

Komaki High School's 1929 front gate: reinforced concrete dressed as stone with carved acanthus capitals, registered in 2017 among thirteen old-system school gates.

Built around 1930 as a middle school's main gate in Nishio, Aichi, these concrete gateposts carry acanthus capitals and were registered in 2017. Still in daily use.

Two granite posts of about 1929 still mark the entrance of Hekinan High School in Aichi. Once a four-post gate with lamps, they were registered in 2017.

A single-story timber workshop of 1934 in Kariya, Aichi, clad in zinc-coated iron with knee-braced posts. Registered in 2018; free tours by advance booking.

A single-story timber workshop of 1934 in Kariya, Aichi, where Toyota's first A1 prototype car was finished in 1935. Registered in 2018; free tours by booking.

Reinforced concrete chosen in 1930 to guard a shrine's treasures from fire, then shaped as a plastered storehouse: curved eaves, corner rafters, a hipped tile roof.

Ten square metres beside the torii, built in 1930: four posts battered inward, a strut truss under the ridge, and a ridge tablet that names no architect at all.

Toyohashi's largest registered shrine building, finished in 1930: an 18.2-metre worship hall with dropped end wings, facing the ground where the Onimatsuri runs.

Built in 1930 at Toyohashi in Aichi, this small shinmei-style main hall keeps Ise's rules: tapered ridge posts, six katsuogi billets, a thatch-shaped copper roof.

The Asahi Sunac Main Building in Owariasahi, Aichi, is a timber office of 1939 built to naval standards and registered in 2004. Its reliefs and access explained.

A tea garden waiting shelter of 1948 on the west side of a private garden in Tsushima, Aichi. Only 3.2 square metres, with round-log framing and bamboo rafters.

At the south edge of the Umeda property stands this early-Showa warehouse, a long two-story timber building of about 18 meters, divided into five rooms. Listed 2004.

Facing the Umeda property's west road, this 9.1-meter tiled wall joins the main house to the warehouse, ink-black boards below and white plaster above. Listed 2004.

Standing in a quiet corner of Inuyama's preserved castle town in Aichi Prefecture, Enmyoji Sanmon is a four-pillar gate built in 1937 by the eleventh-generation master carpenter Ito Heizaemon. Featuring a copper-plated gabled roof crowned by an arched karahafu and lavishly decorated with tiered rainbow beams and frog-leg struts, this finely crafted gate was designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2012. With a 300-year-old weeping cherry blooming just within its threshold, it offers one of Inuyama's most memorable views.

The Otani Family Residence Rice Storehouse in Toyokawa, Aichi is a remarkable two-story reinforced concrete granary built in 1928. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2017, this compact 23m² structure features a distinctive vault ceiling and reflects the modernization of rural Japanese agricultural architecture during the early Showa era.

The Oriental Building Rooftop Ferris Wheel, located atop Nagoya Mitsukoshi Sakae department store, is the oldest surviving rooftop Ferris wheel in Japan. Built in 1956 and designated as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it preserves the memory of Japan's beloved postwar department store rooftop amusement parks.

In Fuso, Aichi, the 1934 belfry of Kakuo-ji is a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property: one bay square, packed with dense brackets and a painted ceiling.

Kakujoro Main Building, a 1936 restaurant-inn in the old port of Fukue on the Atsumi Peninsula, became Tahara's first Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2022.

A Registered Tangible Cultural Property designed in 1930 by Swiss architect Max Hinder, this Western-style rectory stands within the grounds of Nagoya's oldest Catholic church, founded in 1887. Located in the Shirakabe-Chikara-Shuki Townscape Preservation District, it is a precious example of early Showa-era colonial-style architecture.

The Kamiya Family Residence Nakakuguri Gate in Nagoya is a small early Showa bracket gate, 1.7 metres wide, with a carved reused member in its north bracket.