Shōwa

Built around 1932 in Ichinomiya, Aichi, this hip-and-gable house holds eight tatami rooms and a shallow writing bay. Still a family home, it was registered in 2020.

Discover the Sanmon Gate of Kozenji Temple in Inuyama, Aichi Prefecture — a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1939. Explore its connection to the legendary samurai Kajiwara Kagetoki, the Haguro Castle ruins, and over 850 years of Japanese history.

In Inuyama's old castle town, Sairenji's two-story shoin is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, valued for the historic temple streetscape it preserves.

A 1927 wooden wing of the former Damine Elementary School in Aichi's Okumikawa hills, listed as a national cultural property in 2014 and closed as a school in 2024.

A 1927 timber schoolhouse in the Aichi mountain hamlet of Damine, this Registered Cultural Property was preserved by a seismic retrofit and used until 2024.

The largest of Shunkoin's seven registered buildings, this 1933 kuri held the kitchen and priest's quarters, with a modern corridor plan and bold beamwork.

Built in 1936 and the only copper-roofed building of the seven, Furokaku hides a refined sukiya interior behind a plain shell, with polished-log posts.

Completed in 1934 at a Zen temple in Inuyama, this east-facing main hall follows the six-room hojo plan with archaic boat-shaped brackets. Registered in 2012.

This small 1934 study at Joshoji Temple in Toyota City hides vetted timber and delicate openwork transoms behind a plain clapboard exterior. Registered in 2005.

In Showa Ward, Nagoya, the Suzuki Family Residence Main House pairs a central-corridor plan with a Western wing, showing how prewar Nagoya built its new suburbs.

Early Showa granite gate posts and a 77-metre concrete wall cut to imitate edo-giri masonry are the only part of the Aisai Suzuki estate visible from the street.

Sumi Kaikan in Ichinomiya City, Aichi Prefecture, is the only building designed by world-renowned architect Kenzo Tange in the entire prefecture. Completed in 1957, it features signature elements of Tange's early work including double-beam girders and exposed concrete. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2008, it now serves as a community center open for free architectural tours.

The smallest of six registered buildings at Zengyoji in Nagoya, this pavilion shelters a stone basin inscribed 1743, older than its Showa roof by two centuries.

Hidden within the lush grounds of Tokugawa Garden in Nagoya stands Sosanso, a graceful single-story wooden villa built in 1937 as a guesthouse for the Pan-Pacific Peace Exposition and relocated to the garden the same year. Lavishly constructed with the finest Kiso cypress timber, it miraculously survived World War II, served as a wedding hall, and now welcomes visitors as a tea room. It was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2014.

The Taki Gakuen Auditorium, completed in 1933 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2001, stands on the active campus of Taki Junior and Senior High School in Konan City, Aichi Prefecture. Designed by Murase Kuninosuke for the school's founder Taki Shinshiro and built by the Ando-gumi firm of Nagoya, this reinforced-concrete hall combines an austere, near-modernist exterior with the symbolic dignity of a triple-arched entrance and a pediment-shaped gable. Carefully renovated in 2023, it remains in daily ceremonial use and can be visited by advance reservation.

Nestled on the campus of Taki Junior and Senior High School in Konan City, Aichi Prefecture, the Taki Gakuen Library is a rare Registered Tangible Cultural Property where two eras of Japanese architecture stand stacked: a 1933 ground floor in the spirit of pre-war reinforced concrete schoolhouses, and a 1965 upper floor capturing the bright optimism of post-war modernism. Still in active use as the school library it was always meant to be, the building was carefully renovated in 2023 to restore its original plaster walls, lending counter, and reading room details. Together with the adjoining Main Building and Auditorium, it forms one of Aichi Prefecture's finest groupings of registered modern educational architecture.

The Main Building of Taki Gakuen in Konan City, Aichi Prefecture, is a two-story reinforced concrete schoolhouse completed in 1926 as the main hall of Taki Practical Business School. Designed by Murase Kuninosuke and built by Nagoya's Ando-gumi, its central clock tower has long been a beloved landmark of the surrounding town. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2001, it stands as a rare example of a still-active school classroom building recognized at the national level. Interior visits are available by advance reservation through the school's Cultural Property Office.

Ishuntei is the 1934 sukiya main house of Nagoya businessman Furukawa Tamesaburo, projecting over its garden on posts. Registered in 2018, it is open to visitors.

A small Nagoya gate of knotted logs and earthen walls, with flower-tracery doors. Registered in 2018, it opens collector Furukawa Tamesaburo's former sukiya home.

A tiny cedar-bark privy in a Nagoya tea garden, built never to be used. This decorative sand privy is one of six structures registered as cultural property in 2018.