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.
A 1933 gabled timber gate that fronted a Kofu restaurant inn, with bracing posts, bracketed arms, sliding lattice doors and a plaque still reading Hotta Kojoen.
A tiny 1933 tea room in Kofu laid out on a rhombus, with a four-and-a-half-mat room and biwa-dana alcove, restored to its original footprint from foundation traces.
A long tiled service building from 1933 that forms the street front of a Kofu restaurant inn with its gate, keeping original timbers after conversion into 2 rooms.
A 1933 detached guest room at a former Kofu restaurant inn, built to the same size and plan as its north twin and framing the east edge of the garden.
Clay-walled shop of 1926 of an old Japanese confectioner at Barasawa, Minami-Alps, Yamanashi, standing at a bend of the Fujikawa Highway in a former post town.
A 1929 clinic in Showa, Yamanashi, with reddish plaster walls, tall windows and an English sign, where two doctors fought schistosomiasis. Its dispensary survives.
Daiichikan in Minobu, Yamanashi: a three-storey timber inn of about 1933 by the Shinsen Bridge at Shimobe Onsen, with railed windows lining the hot-spring street.
Timber village hall of 1928 in Fujikawa, Yamanashi, built by local hands for an imperial enthronement, with a staged hall; still used for district gatherings.
The Hirase plant's 1935 office, a tiled timber building with a double-arched porch, later an officer's residence and home since 1988 to the Suikoan water museum.
The Okunoin bell house at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1935 copper-roofed bell tower on the 1,153-metre summit, its 4 round posts leaning in under deep, bracketed eaves.
The Jishoro at Minobusan Kuonji is a tall time bell tower of 1952 at the entrance to the main area, with a flared skirt and zodiac animals carved under its balcony.
The Shishinkaku Niomon at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1935 gate on the 1,153-metre summit, a copper-roofed hakkyakumon housing Nio guardian statues behind carved brackets.
The Joshoden at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1958 cypress-bark hall at the entrance to Nichiren's grave, its 45-mat room glazed to face the tower; the grave office is here.
The New Shoin at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1931 building on artificial ground, with 3 tatami rooms of 24 mats under high coffered ceilings and lattice-filled gables.
The Suigyodo at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1952 open-sided pavilion for water austerities, a tiled gable roof on chamfered posts and close brackets over a water basin.
The Zuimon at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1953 yakuimon gate with side walls closing off the Sanmaido, built of thick timber with bearing blocks and boat-shaped arms.
The Sobyo Mizuya at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1944 log-built water pavilion before Nichiren's grave, where a hollowed boulder basin holds water from the Minobu River.
The Sobyo tower at Minobusan Kuonji is a 12-metre marble-faced octagon of 1942 over Nichiren's grave, sheltering the original gorinto stone memorial of his tomb.
The Sobyo Worship Hall at Minobusan Kuonji is a 1942 log-framed hall under cypress bark, with a stone-paved floor for standing worship before Nichiren's grave.
The Butsuden and Nohaido at Minobusan Kuonji, built in 1931, join a Buddha hall to 2 memorial-tablet wings; anyone can join its services at noon and 3:00 p.m.