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.
An 18-metre reinforced concrete garden wall of the early Showa era, pierced with curved diamonds and checkerboard voids. Registered in 2003 as not easy to reproduce.
Just 1.5 metres wide, this early Showa timber gate divides entrance from garden at Hyakunen-ya in Kochi. Registered in 2003 for the order it brings to the approach.
A 1929 merchant house at a corner of the Shikoku pilgrimage route in Aki, Kochi. Four tiers of drip tiles guard its east wall. Registered in 2013; exterior only.
A 5.8-metre earthen wall in Aki, Kochi, coated in Tosa lime plaster with a corded plaster ridge built against typhoons. Registered in 2013 with the house it adjoins.
The early Shōwa home of a Kōchi sake-brewing family, with white Tosa-plaster walls, a black-plastered entrance and deep eaves on log purlins, registered in 2004.
An early Shōwa zelkova gate with gable pendants and a washed-aggregate concrete fence before a Kōchi sake brewer's house, registered as exemplary design in 2004.
An early Shōwa concrete gateway scored to resemble stonework, dividing brewery from household at the center of a Kōchi sake brewer's compound; registered 2004.
An early Shōwa sake storehouse with buttressed reinforced-concrete walls, showing how brewery building evolved in a Kōchi brewer's compound. Registered in 2004.
A detached early Shōwa timber privy behind the Main House of a Kōchi sake brewer's compound, with a king-post roof and an original west face. Registered 2004.
An early Shōwa concrete bathhouse behind a Kōchi sake brewer's house, with cornice, pilasters and a curved canopy; registered as exemplary design in 2004.
Restaurant Tokugetsuro Kiku Room, built in 1957 at the innermost point of the site, omits the nageshi rail and turns its writing bay in an L by the alcove.
Restaurant Tokugetsuro Guest Room began as a forestry pavilion at the 1937 Nangoku Exposition, moved here in 1950. Its timber list still hangs by the door.
Built in 1957 facing a late Edo garden, Restaurant Tokugetsuro Koyo Room has a writing bay with a round window and a coffered ceiling in a geometric figure.
Restaurant Tokugetsuro Main Gate, built in 1959 on the northern street, is a wide low gate 5.9 metres across, with sliding doors and posts of polished log.
Rebuilt in 1950 after the Kochi air raids, Restaurant Tokugetsuro Main Building holds an 80-mat hall ceiled with cedar boards 10 metres long. Registered in 2004.
Restaurant Tokugetsuro Connecting Corridor links the main building to the garden rooms. Polished logs frame its boat-bottom ceiling, and the waiting area is woven.
The Ganshoji Temple Main Entrance in Saga, built in 1934, fronts a 24.7-metre gabled wing with a grand hipped porch, curved-top windows and a column-free hall.
Built in 1934, the Ganshoji Temple Great Hall in Saga uses a Western king post truss to roof one 80-mat room, with a Buddhist altar and alcoves at its north end.
Twin gabled workshops of the early Showa era at Koeigiku Sake Brewery in Ogi, Saga, where rice was washed and steamed over a cauldron sunk in the floor. Listed 2021.
A tapering English-bond brick chimney about 11 metres tall, with a four-step moulded cap and iron-braced corners, serving the kettle room of Koeigiku Sake Brewery.