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.
The red-brick wall of the Katata Church in Otsu, Shiga, built in 1930 on the street to the harbour, is 15.5 metres long, with its top course turned 45 degrees.
The brick gateposts of the Minakuchi Church in Koka, Shiga, built in 1930 in line with the chapel entrance, stand 1.5 metres high with low walls on either side.
The chapel of the Minakuchi Church in Koka, Shiga, built in 1930 by the Vories office, has a Latin-cross plan with its sanctuary set across the transept.
A 1929 registered property in Higashiomi, Shiga: a plain merchant-town front hiding a refined sukiya hall upstairs, with a curved coffered ceiling and bat-shaped windows.
A 1929 registered property on the Fukada estate in Higashiomi, Shiga: a small wing for the bath and lavatory, yet with a corridor ceiling refined enough for a hanare.
A 1933 timber row house at the end of a bent lane in Otsu, Shiga. Built for two households, now one, it keeps both doorways. Registered 2020; a private home, closed.
An early Showa timber annex behind the registered ryotei in Kusatsu, Shiga. Its ground-floor hall carries a coved coffered ceiling, and verandas wrap both floors.
The street wall of a registered ryotei in Kusatsu, Shiga, built around 1936 and running eleven metres. Knotted log posts stand on cut stone below red plaster.
A 1936 timber ryotei on a Kusatsu street corner, registered in 2008. Red plaster closes the street front; the garden side opens to an 80-mat hall with a stage.
A 20-meter roofed wall of the early Showa period enclosing a townhouse garden in Takamiya, Hikone, rising 3.1 meters above the stone bank of a small waterway.
An early Showa bracketed gate with a sliding door and short board walls, set on the old Nakasendo before an 1857 townhouse in Takamiya, Hikone, Shiga Prefecture.
Hogonji's 1942 main hall on Chikubushima, designed by Inui Kanematsu after the old hall went to the shrine in Meiji, with murals by Arai Kampo. Registered in 2025.
Brewing storehouse built in 1959 at the old Nishikatsu brewery in Omihachiman: concrete below, timber above, mortar walls and queen-post trusses. Registered 2022.
Mid Showa storehouse where koji was made at the old Nishikatsu brewery in Omihachiman. Lime plaster outside, sealed with boards inside for warmth. Registered 2022.
The Kannon Hall of Myokanji in Konan, Shiga, built in 1937 to a design by a Kyoto Imperial University lecturer, is a small Zen-style hall that recalls medieval work.
The Wakabayashi Family Residence Main House in Hikone is a two-storey 1928 Japanese home with a bold arched window in its formal room and a glazed veranda.
The Wakabayashi Family Residence Kitchen Wing in Hikone, built 1928, pairs a kitchen and bath with a lady's sitting room with a sloping ceiling and triangle alcove.
The Wakabayashi Family Residence Gate and Wall in Hikone is an early Showa gate with lattice doors in a tall wall, and a 68-metre boundary wall with small windows.
The Wakabayashi Family Residence Western-Style Wing in Hikone is a 1928 annex with a red jerkinhead roof, chimney and Tudor fireplace; family lore credits Vories.
A 1949 wooden school in the mountains of Kimotsuki, Kagoshima, registered in 2009, with clapboard walls braced by buttresses against the wind, closed since 2012.