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.
Chapel and auditorium of 1949 at Yamanashi Eiwa school in Kofu, Yamanashi, built after the war by Shiokawa Akira with a lofty timber hall; named for a missionary.
Prestressed concrete railway bridge of 1954 in Shigaraki, Koka, Shiga, the first of its kind in Japan, spanning the river without piers and still carrying trains.
A late Edo-period thatched yakuimon gate at the Akada house in Nagahama, Shiga, flanked by tiled wing walls, with log rafters and a side wicket. Registered in 2025.
A 1917 two-storey clay storehouse at the Akada house in Nagahama, Shiga, with white lime plaster over washed-mortar walls, a granite base and an okiyane roof.
The former YMCA hall of Omihachiman, Shiga, built in 1935 and now the Andrews Memorial Hall, pairs Japanese and Western rooms under red glazed tiles and white walls.
Anyoin Temple Amida Hall, built in 1934 at a Saikyoji sub-temple in Otsu, sits on rough stones and echoes a Zen abbot's quarters with verandas on all four sides.
Anyoin Temple Storehouse, a 2-storey kura of 1934 beside the Amida Hall at a Saikyoji sub-temple in Otsu, has mortar and lime walls and a torii-shaped doorway.
Anyoin Temple Priests' Quarters, a 1928 residence at a Saikyoji sub-temple in Otsu, is its largest building at 175 square metres, with a broad roof and kitchen wing.
Anyoin Temple Shoin, a small 1930 residence at a Saikyoji sub-temple in Otsu, has an alcove room, its own kitchen and an L-shaped corridor facing the garden.
Anyoin Temple Benten Hall, a tiny copper-roofed hall of 1935 at a Saikyoji sub-temple in Otsu, keeps the full wayo vocabulary of brackets, railings and coffering.
Anyoin Temple Gate, the 1927 entrance to a Saikyoji sub-temple in Otsu, is a 1.8-metre yakuimon gate with plain eaves and bold carving, registered in 2001.
Anyoin Temple Worship Hall, a small 1933 hall linked to the Shoten Hall at a Saikyoji sub-temple in Otsu, has gently curved eaves, a lattice gable and slat windows.
Timber chapel of 1937 at the former Omi Sanatorium in Omihachiman, Shiga, built for tuberculosis patients and staff, with white walls and round arches; still used.
Omi Shrine Kagura Hall of 1944 covers 162 square metres, with a gabled carriage porch on one corner and a curved gable facing the corridor. It is still in use.
Omi Shrine Kagura Hall Corridor wraps the hall on three sides across 64 square metres, each arm framed differently so the roofs open towards the inner court.
Omi Shrine North Gate opens the northern outer precinct, its round main posts tied to squared stays by curved beams under a gabled copper roof of 1944.
Omi Shrine Back Gate stands 2.7 metres wide behind the sanctuary. Latticed doors merge it into the fence; only its raised, curved roof marks it as a gate.
Omi Shrine Saikan is the only building here set off the precinct's axis, turned some 30 degrees, with an eight-mat room and a ten-mat shoin room inside.
Omi Shrine Saikan Entrance is a back door with a composed front: four tall panelled doors under a finely barred transom, tiled, covering 27 square metres.
Omi Shrine Assembly Hall of 1944 runs north from a bluff beside the Kagura Hall, its four ten-mat rooms opened into a single space behind a run of bay windows.