Shōwa

The lowest of the Shimizu River dams, completed in 1938. An irrigation channel through its left abutment lets one wall both hold back flood sediment and feed the fields.

The last of the Shimizu River dams, completed in 1944 at a bend in the stream. Its spillway is shifted aside to ease the current, with Mt. Hiruzen on the horizon.

Discover the Kaisando (Founder's Hall) of Daijuji Temple in Yazu, Tottori Prefecture—a nationally registered tangible cultural property housing centuries of Zen heritage, memorial tablets, and the largest Uraku Camellia in Japan.

Discover the Chizu Fire Brigade Honmachi Branch Station, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Tottori's Chizu-juku. Built in 1941 with a distinctive fire lookout tower, this Western-style wooden building still serves as an active fire station.

Step inside a 1942 wooden schoolhouse in Tottori's Chizu Town, where an 81-meter corridor, local cedar craftsmanship, and forestry heritage come together in a rare surviving example of modern rural school architecture.

The Tokoen Main Building 'Tendai' at Kaike Onsen in Yonago City, Tottori Prefecture, is the crowning achievement of Metabolism architecture, designed by architect Kikutake Kiyonori in 1964. Featuring the world's only 'double pilotis' structure with guest rooms suspended from six main columns, it was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2017. With seven gardens by sculptor Nagare Masayuki and skin-beautifying alkaline hot springs, this living cultural property offers a one-of-a-kind overnight architectural experience.

Discover Ryokan Ohashi, a 1932 wooden inn in Tottori's Misasa Onsen designated as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Experience masterful shrine-carpenter architecture, naturally gushing hot springs, and exquisite kaiseki cuisine.

Built in 1932 along the rural Wakasa Line in eastern Tottori Prefecture, the Abe Station Platform is a 72-meter concrete structure with granite walls stacked in three layers and a distinctive glass-walled waiting room. Designated a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2008, it remains in active use today and is also celebrated as a filming location for the beloved 'Otoko wa Tsurai yo' (Tora-san) film series.

Discover Inaba-Funaoka Station on the Wakasa Railway in Tottori Prefecture—a 1929 wooden station building and granite platform registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Explore its Showa-era charm, nearby cherry blossom sites, and tips for visiting this hidden gem along one of Japan's most scenic heritage railway lines.

Tucked into a quiet valley in Yazu Town, Tottori, the platform of Wakasa Railway's Hatto Station is a beautifully preserved stone-built structure dating from the 1930 opening of the Wakasa Line. With its trackside masonry wall, gentle ramp connection to the wooden station house, and a charming glass-walled waiting shelter added at center in 1954, it offers visitors an authentic encounter with early-Showa rural railway architecture. Designated a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2008 as part of Japan's first-ever block registration of 23 facilities along an entire railway line, the platform invites travelers to step into a slower, gentler era of country rail travel.

The early-Showa tea-garden arbor of the Itohara house, barely three square metres under a cedar-bark roof, where guests paused before a tea gathering.

Discover Karakoro Art Studio, the beautifully preserved former Bank of Japan Matsue Branch in Shimane Prefecture. Designed by architect Nagano Uheiji in 1938 and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, this Greek-inspired landmark now serves as a vibrant food, culture, and art complex in the heart of Matsue's castle town.

Discover the Former Tadokoro Elementary School Auditorium in Ohnan, Shimane Prefecture. Built in 1928, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property features a grand irimoya roof and early Shōwa-era wooden architecture, now serving as a local history museum.

A 19-metre reinforced concrete chimney built in 1957 at Shimomori Brewery in Tsuwano. It vented the kiln that steamed sake rice and now marks the brewery from afar.

The early-Showa rice mill at Shimomori Brewery in Tsuwano handled rice polishing, the first step of sake-making, and completes a quiet street front beside the storehouse.

Located in Matsue City, Shimane, the Shimane Prefectural Government Building Assembly Hall was completed in 1959 to a design by Yasuda Kataski and is registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. This reinforced concrete structure on the former third bailey of Matsue Castle is celebrated as a leading example of post-war provincial modernist architecture.

Discover the Shimane Prefectural Government Main Office Building in Matsue, a 1959 modernist masterpiece designed by Shimane-born architect Yasuda Kataru. Standing on the former third bailey of Matsue Castle, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property harmonises exposed concrete, horizontal white canopies and local stone with the historic landscape.

Facing Matsue Castle across the moat, the Shimane Prefectural Civic Center is a 1968 modernist landmark designed by architect Yasuda Kataji. At the heart of the award-winning Shimane Prefectural Government Area Improvement Plan, it was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2021. Its colonnaded façade engages in a deliberate dialogue with the prefectural office across the water.

Standing across the moat from Matsue Castle in Shimane Prefecture, the Shimane Prefectural Library is a celebrated work of postwar Japanese modernism. Designed by Kiyonori Kikutake and completed in 1968, the building was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2021. Its L-shaped reading-room modules, bold steel-roofed central lobby, and carefully aligned wall-columns that preserve views toward the castle reveal an architect thinking deeply about both function and setting. Still in use as a public library today, it is freely open to visitors and sits within easy walking distance of Matsue Castle, the samurai streets of Shiomi Nawate, and other Kikutake works including the Shimane Art Museum on Lake Shinji.

Discover Shimane Prefectural Budokan in Matsue, a 1970 martial arts hall designed by celebrated Metabolist architect Kiyonori Kikutake. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, its bold closed façade and vast 40-meter steel truss dojo make it a hidden gem of modern Japanese architecture near Matsue Castle.