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.
Built in 1935, the first and largest of the four rearing houses here, with a ventilation tower on the ridge and stairs down to a cool store for mulberry leaves.
Built in 1937 as the unheated house for the summer silkworm crop, its upper floor still largely as it was, with a gabled porch at the centre of the south elevation.
Built in 1937 west of the first rearing house, this timber building was warmed by boiler steam so that spring and autumn silkworm crops could both be raised here.
A 1937 heated rearing house that keeps original partitions and flooring on part of its ground floor, with stairs in the east lean-to down to a cool mulberry store.
Built in 1934 at the heart of a snow-country silkworm station, this timber office keeps its symmetrical four-room plan and now holds a free exhibition room.
Corridors running north from the main office to link every building on this 1934 silkworm station, walled against the snow, with the largest footprint of the ten.
The 1937 office of the Setcho snow-country research institute in Shinjo, Yamagata, registered in 2014, with a steep dormered roof designed for heavy snow.
A 1932 stable joined to a thatched farmhouse in Utamaru, Nagai, Yamagata, with two stalls, posts still holed for tethering bars and a low loft; registered in 2022.
The youngest of five Nagai merchant storehouses, this early Showa timber store stands beside a late Edo kura, its west window canopy set on a geometric iron bracket.
Concrete cocoon warehouse of 1927 in Miyauchi, Nan'yo, Yamagata, the largest of three on the site, recalling the silk trade; now the Kurara community hall.
A 1929 hip-and-gable household shrine in the courtyard of a Yonezawa sake brewery: porch roof, coffered ceiling, 6.9 square metres, registered as a model of form.
City hall of 1967 in Sagae, Yamagata, an early work by Kurokawa Kisho with upper floors hung from four cores and an Okamoto Taro sculpture; still in use today.
A 1927 mortared stone dam on the Minamisawa ravine of the Shohoji River in Tendo, 24 m long and 3.0 m high, one of a row of dams all built about 10 shaku tall.
A 1927 mortared stone dam on the Minamisawa ravine of the Shohoji River in Tendo, 26 m long and 3.0 m high; from here downstream the spillway notches are made wider.
A 1927 mortared stone dam at the foot of the Minamisawa ravine of the Shohoji River in Tendo, 31 m long, set on a concrete levelling course poured over bedrock.
Seba Sabo Dam of 1953 crosses the Tatsuyazawa River in Shonai Town, Yamagata: a 193-metre wall of hand-laid cobblestone concrete that drops water in four stages.
A gate and wall of c.1934 fronting a farmhouse in Jinba, Yamagata City: a 4.3-metre bracket-arm gate and 68 metres of plaster-and-board wall; registered in 2008.
The Rear Gate and Tamagaki Fence at Fukura Kuchinomiya, Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine: a 51 m fence and simple arm-supported gate of 1939. Registered in 2012.
The Middle Gate and Corridors at Fukura Kuchinomiya, Chokaisan Omonoimi Shrine: a plain 1939 gate whose corridor ends hold offering rooms. Registered in 2012.
The Worship Hall and Ascending Corridor at Fukura Kuchinomiya: a restrained hall above 100 steps, linked by a roofed stairway to the sanctuary. Registered in 2012.