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.
Completed in 1955 above Haruna Shrine in Takasaki, this 69-metre erosion-control dam is faced in diagonally coursed stone. Free to visit, five minutes on foot.
At Ōana Onsen in Minakami, Gunma, this bath sits deep in a tunnel hewn into the bedrock, where Moralogy's founder Hiroike Chikuro convalesced. It was listed in 2025.
At Ōana in Minakami, this changing room has a double cedar-bark roof and an exposed king-post truss. Hiroike Chikuro died at this site in 1938; it was listed in 2025.
At Tanigawa in Minakami stands a shrine of about 7.3 square metres enshrining Amaterasu, clad in cedar bark and built in 1936. It was listed in 2025.
At Tanigawa Onsen in Minakami stands Reitaku-kan, a single-storey retreat with a bath on its east end. Hiroike Chikuro stayed here in his final years; listed in 2025.
Studio-home built in 1948 by the painter Kondo Yoshio beside the Hirose River in Maebashi, Gunma, with an International Style front; a small art museum since 1997.
The Hoshi Onsen Chojukan Annex is a 1940 two-story guest wing beside the Hoshi River in Minakami, Gunma, with plastered walls and glass doors facing the water.
Reinforced-concrete church of 1932 in Maebashi, Gunma, with twin towers square below and octagonal above and a vaulted nave; it survived the wartime air raid.
Art Deco rapid filtration house of 1932 at the Motojuku plant in Kiryu, Gunma, with a symmetrical stepped front and British Candy filters still in operation.
Junction well of 1932 at the Motojuku plant in Kiryu, Gunma, gathering groundwater for the pumps, 11.1 metres deep and ringed by a low stone-effect circular wall.
Concrete regulating reservoir of 1932 at the Motojuku plant in Kiryu, Gunma, 15.2 by 21.1 metres and 3 metres deep, with evenly spaced vents and a stone stair.
Pump room of 1932 at the Motojuku plant in Kiryu, Gunma, with scratch-tile walls and strong verticals outside and Art Deco lamps and brass rails inside.
A c.1951 three-story store at Kiryu's Morihide silk mill, built for raw silk on the site of an older kura, with two floors of storage topped by an 8-mat tatami room.
A sawtooth weaving shed of 1946 at the Morihide works in Kiryu, extended around 1952, keeping central posts and loom pulleys; now the Yukari museum exhibition room.
Reception house of 1927 of an oil-merchant family in Takasaki, Gunma, moved in 1990, lavished with inlay, lacquer and carving; a modern Japanese-style landmark.
Tiny steel bridge of 1936 on the Watarase Keikoku Railway at Hanawa in Midori, Gunma, with a standard trough girder holding the rails low between two beams.
Timber staff rest house of 1928 at Godo Station on the Watarase Keikoku Railway in Midori, Gunma, with a six-mat room, forming one group with the station building.
Concrete flume of 1930 over the Watarase Keikoku Railway in Midori, Gunma, carried on old rails to shed rain and debris into the river, with a trumpet channel.
Concrete flume of 1935 on old rails over the Watarase Keikoku Railway at Sori in Midori, Gunma, built to keep weathered granite and rain off the line below.
Reinforced-concrete cathedral in Hiroshima by Murano Togo, dedicated on August 6, 1954 to mourn the atomic bomb victims, with a 45-metre bell tower and brick walls.