Shōwa

The Nippon Sei Ko Kai Chubu Diocese Inariyama All Saints Church, a reinforced concrete chapel built in 1933 along the historic Zenkōji Highway in Chikuma City, Nagano, was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 2023. Discover the history of Canadian Anglican missionary work and the distinctive architecture featuring buttress-like pilasters and semicircular arched windows.

Discover the Iiyama Resurrection Church, a 1932 wooden chapel designed by Canadian missionary Rev. Waller, blending Gothic architecture with Japanese tatami floors in Nagano's historic Buddhist temple town. A nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property.

Discover the Nippon Sei Ko Kai Chubu Diocese Okaya St. Barnabas Church, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Okaya, Nagano. Built in 1928 for silk factory workers, this unique wooden chapel blends Anglican traditions with Japanese tatami-mat flooring and shrine-style ornamentation.

Nozawa Onsen Lodge in Nozawa Onsen Village, Nagano Prefecture, is a three-story wooden dome building completed in 1969, designed by Takamasa Yoshizaka and his U Laboratory. Yoshizaka was one of three Japanese architects who studied directly under Le Corbusier. The lodge features a distinctive acorn-shaped form with green steel-plate cladding, a central spiral staircase, and radially arranged guest rooms on a hexagonal plan. Designed to allow natural snow shedding in an area with over 3 meters of annual snowfall, it has been recommended for registration as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property. The lodge remains open for guests, offering a rare opportunity to stay in a designated cultural property.

An early-Showa covered walkway to the main building at Hanaya Hotel. Some 22 metres long under a gabled copper roof, log posts and curved beams form a sukiya-style link.

An early-Showa covered walkway from the office wing to the large bath at Hanaya Hotel. About 18 metres long, open at the sides, bark-edged posts make a sukiya passage.

A guest wing of about 1950, south of the central hall at Hanaya Hotel. Its three rooms use prized timber, including black persimmon in the thresholds, around the alcoves.

The Bridal Somebana Mimura Shop, located along the former Kōshū Kaidō highway in Suwa City, Nagano Prefecture, is a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1929. A fine example of kanban kenchiku (signboard architecture) featuring geometric ornamentation on its Western-style façade, it forms a distinctive streetscape together with the adjacent Mimura Jewelry Store.

The Furuta Akira Memorial Museum Exhibition Room in Kitaono, Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, is a literary museum housed in a converted traditional storehouse from the birthplace of Furuta Akira, founder of the renowned publishing house Chikuma Shobō. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2009, the museum displays approximately 90 literary artifacts, including a hanging scroll by Dazai Osamu and letters from Kawabata Yasunari. The building itself is an architectural gem featuring distinctive namako-kabe plaster walls, open second-floor tatami rooms, and an elegant sukiya-style connecting corridor.

Located at the northern edge of Narai-juku post town in Shiojiri City, Nagano Prefecture, the Maruyama Shikkiten Oya Stone Storehouse is a three-story building constructed in 1961 using Oya stone from Tochigi Prefecture. Inspired by stone buildings seen near Utsunomiya, Kiso lacquerware merchants built it as a lacquer workshop, but dust and condensation issues made it impractical. As the sole surviving example of its kind, it is registered as a national tangible cultural property.

Discover Minami Uchida Community Hall in Shiojiri, Nagano — the oldest surviving postwar community hall in the prefecture. Built in 1947 through dedicated community effort, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property features a striking irimoya-zukuri wooden design using centuries-old timber from a local shrine.

Step into the Yudanaka Station Old Building, a 1927 wooden depot in chalet form with Stick-style detailing that has welcomed travelers to Nagano's hot spring resorts for nearly a century. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan since 2005, it now serves as Kaede no Yakata, a free community space at the gateway to the Yudanaka-Shibu onsen district and Shiga Kogen.

A 1944 gravity-type concrete sabo dam on the Yokoyu River in Yamanouchi, Nagano. Registered in 2021, this 39-meter structure helps protect the historic Yudanaka-Shibu onsen valley from debris flows.

Yoroduya Ryokan's Momoyama Bath in Yudanaka Onsen, Nagano, is a wooden temple-style bathhouse completed in 1953 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2003. Its coved coffered ceiling, nail-free joinery, and oval Inada-stone tub make it one of Japan's most extraordinary places to bathe.

Discover the Former Hino Bridge (Kyū Hino-bashi), a 1929 six-span Warren truss bridge in Yonago, Tottori. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property, this 366-meter steel bridge offers iconic views with Mt. Daisen as its backdrop.

The Former Yoshida Medical Clinic in Tottori City is a kura-style medical building personally designed by Yoshida Shoya, a leading figure in Japan's Mingei folk craft movement, after the devastating Tottori Great Fire of 1952. Behind its traditional exterior of white plaster walls with namako mortar joints and mushiko-mado windows lies an interior that harmonizes Western Baroque staircases with East Asian decorative patterns—all unified under a warm Mingei aesthetic. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2021, it stands as a masterwork of architectural Mingei.

Discover the Former Yonago Kakubancho Post Office, a 1935 wooden Western-style post office in Yonago, Tottori Prefecture. Now known as YORAIYA Kakuban, this Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property has been restored as a vibrant community space in the historic castle town district.

Completed in 1937, this is the tallest of five stone-faced erosion-control dams on the upper Shimizu River. A square weep hole pierces the base of its spillway.

Completed in 1939, this low stone dam anchors the top of the Shimizu River group above Kurayoshi. Its weathered masonry sinks into a forest replanted after erosion.

Completed in 1938 and 80 metres long, this is the longest Shimizu River dam. A carved stone plaque on its left abutment bears the crest of the Home Ministry.