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.
The 1930s heart of a merchant's villa beside Fukuyama Castle, with a bark-roofed karahafu porch and a 21-mat hall whose veranda frames the keep across the garden.
A 1942 tea house across the pond at Fukuju Hall, known as Bojotei, with rooms open to the garden and a tea path split by a crawl-through nakakuguri gate.
Built in 1928 for Jikoin in Ryogoku, Tokyo, and moved to Kisa in 2020, this seven-bay hall pairs a U-shaped earthen outer hall with a trussed roof. Registered 2024.
Myogenji Main Hall in Fukutomi, Higashihiroshima, built in 1938 by carpenter Nishitani Shoichi, has diagonal brackets, 4-bay beams and ranma by an Omi carver.
Early Showa timber lab behind Yamamoto Rock Machine's old office in Tojo, Hiroshima: arched windows, scraped-mortar walls, registered in 2024 as a model of design.
Early Showa office and home of Yamamoto Rock Machine on Shinmachi-suji in Tojo, Hiroshima: scraped-mortar front, bay and round windows, registered in 2024.
A 38-meter timber workshop of about 1937 at Yamamoto Rock Machine in Tojo, Hiroshima: queen post truss, ridge monitor, arched gable windows. Registered in 2016.
A 1937 three-story timber family dormitory of Yamamoto Rock Machine in Tojo, Hiroshima, with clipped-gable roof and dormers, now in volunteer care. Registered 2016.
A timber canteen and recreation hall of about 1937 at Yamamoto Rock Machine's dormitories in Tojo, Hiroshima, with pressed-steel ceiling panels. Registered in 2016.
A 59-meter timber dormitory of about 1941 for single workers at Yamamoto Rock Machine in Tojo, Hiroshima, with ten-mat rooms and a basement. Registered in 2016.
A timber schoolhouse of about 1938 where Yamamoto Rock Machine in Tojo, Hiroshima trained apprentice machinists above a storeroom until around 1980. Registered 2016.
Built in 1934 in Tojo, Hiroshima, this 78-meter timber shop raises its central bay and adds a monitor roof for daylight. It still builds rock drills today.
Completed in 1937 at right angles to the older shop, this 44-meter timber workshop carries king post trusses, ranked windows, and a washed-aggregate dado.
Built about 1939 for the factory workforce, this 18-square-meter timber block was registered for its doubled glazing and its original flush plumbing system.
Kenzo Tange completed this Takamatsu government office in 1958, recasting the columns and beams of Japanese tradition in concrete over an open civic piloti.
Five arches on six buttresses, raised in 1929 by the Kagawa farmers who would drink the water. This concrete irrigation dam still works, and admission is free.
A c.1931 townhouse facing the old Konpira road in Takamatsu, Kagawa: black plaster over white tile, stepped copper eaves and a gabled porch. Registered 2005.
A c.1931 two-storey clay-walled storehouse in Takamatsu, Kagawa, once used for bottling sake: five bays long and 48 square metres, finished to match its neighbour.
A c.1931 four-and-a-half-mat sukiya pavilion in the courtyard of a Takamatsu townhouse, with a half-gabled, half-hipped roof, giboshi railings and a drum bridge.
A c.1931 two-storey clay-walled sake storehouse in Takamatsu, Kagawa, part of a townhouse's street front: high namako tiling, white plaster and a thick eaves band.