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.
Daiosaki Lighthouse in Shima, Mie: a 23-metre round concrete tower lit in 1927, with a fan-shaped colonnade and classical entrance at its foot. Open to climb.
Daiosaki Lighthouse Gateposts and Wall in Shima, Mie: a 1927 concrete wall that bends for 105.3 m around the lighthouse, with gateposts in washed mortar.
Four-storey concrete store built in 1930 by Kawakita Handeishi on Mount Chitose, Tsu, Mie, with double walls and windows; still in use beside the Sekisui Museum.
The Nagai Family Residence (Umeya) Inari Shrine in Kihoku, Mie, is a household shrine of about 1969 with a hole in its back wall for foxes. Registered in 2021.
The Nagai Family Residence (Umeya) Inner Gate, Inner Wall and Service Gate in Kihoku, Mie, enclose the main garden with a 31-meter wall, c. 1931. Registered 2021.
The Nagai Family Residence (Umeya) Maid's Room in Kihoku, Mie, is a 1928 service wing with a maid's room and a workroom that still holds an icebox. Registered 2021.
The Nagai Family Residence (Umeya) Main Gate and Stonework in Kihoku, Mie: a 1969 gate set in 42 meters of massive fieldstone walls from about 1931. Registered 2021.
The Nagai Family Residence (Umeya) Outer Wall and Service Gate in Kihoku, Mie, close the north side with a 26-meter tiled wall of about 1931. Registered in 2021.
The Nagai Family Residence (Umeya) Annex in Kihoku, Mie, is a retirement house of about 1932 with a sukiya tea room upstairs and a 1969 wing. Registered 2021.
The Nagai Family Residence (Umeya) Connecting Corridor in Kihoku, Mie, is a walkway of about 1931, open to the garden and walled in Otsu plaster. Registered 2021.
The Nakaroku Shop in Shima, Mie, built in 1929 before the gates of Izawa-no-Miya, turns its gable to the shrine and opens its upper floor with large windows.
The front gate of the Hattori Residence in Yokkaichi, Mie, built in about 1937, is a four-legged gate with egg-yolk walls, a cedar dado and a transom of umoregi.
The main house of the Hattori family in Yokkaichi, Mie, built in 1934, pairs a swelling roof and cedar-bark walls with sukiya, shoin-style and Western rooms.
The storehouse of the Hattori Residence in Yokkaichi, Mie, built in about 1936, keeps the old form but uses modern mortar finishes and a braced truss roof frame.
The barn of the Hattori Residence in Yokkaichi, Mie, built in about 1938, was planned with a student's room and matches the main house in roof and cedar-bark walls.
Timber Western-style alumni hall of 1936 on the Mie University campus in Tsu, built for the agricultural college's tenth anniversary; its only surviving building.
Outside the kitchen door of the Misedoi main house in Owase, this early-Showa well house shelters a well and sink under splayed posts, open on three sides.
The largest storehouse on the Misedoi estate in Owase, this early-Showa rice store has a hipped tiled roof with crested ridge tiles and a deep covered forecourt.
Built in 1931 in Owase, Mie, this timber house pairs a Western-style entrance and reception room with sukiya tatami rooms, a central corridor and Art Deco details.
Facing the old Kumano road in Owase, this early-Showa concrete gate and 126 m wall share the main house's rough coloured mortar, with scratch tile on the gateposts.