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 1938, last of a row of warehouses, keeping a number with nothing left to count. A king post truss inside, washed granite on the signboard gable.
The council chamber of Noshiro, Akita, a timber hall of 1950 beside the city office, has a geometric front, close-set wide windows and a queen-post truss roof.
The first building of Noshiro City Hall in Akita, a concrete office of 1949, shows its rigid frame plainly on a 51-metre front, a fine postwar city hall.
L-shaped residential wing at the back of a kimono merchant's estate in Yuzawa, Akita, with a formal alcove room; alone of seven registered as a model of design.
Low, steady earthen storehouse built in 1935 at the back of a kimono merchant's estate in Yuzawa, Akita, turned north-south with doors on two sides. Registered 2007.
Small early Showa concrete garage beside a kimono merchant's townhouse on the old Ushu Kaido in Yuzawa, Akita, with spiral brackets under its hood. Registered 2007.
Gable-fronted 1930s townhouse of a kimono merchant in Yuzawa, Akita, with stacked beams and deep green Seto glazed tiles. Registered 2007; open one day a year.
Smallest of four 1935 storehouses on a kimono merchant's estate in Yuzawa, Akita, with hinged window shutters under hoods carried on brackets. Registered 2007.
Long, narrow 1935 earthen storehouse on a kimono merchant's estate in Yuzawa, Akita, with a separately framed roof, hooded windows and no ornament. Registered 2007.
Largest of four 1935 storehouses on a kimono merchant's estate in Yuzawa, Akita, with hinged fire doors and a raised rear floor. Opens on the city's open-house day.
Early Showa brewing factory in Yurihonjo, Akita, largest of the five listed buildings, with a koji room and a king-post truss topped by Japanese-style posts.
1957 brewing factory in Yurihonjo, Akita, the newest of five listed buildings. Its concrete-block core held moromi and warm-fermentation rooms. Listed 2023.
A small early Showa storehouse for vinegar at a Yuzawa brewery in Akita, its eaves braced with metal against snow and its roof packed with straw. Registered 2024.
A small early Showa rice storehouse on a corner across from a Yuzawa brewery in Akita, with a separate okiyane roof and a king post truss. Registered in 2024.
Ryotei Kaneyu in Noshiro, Akita: a grand 1937 restaurant built of natural Akita cedar, with a 110-mat banquet hall and a ceiling of one 9.1 m board. Free to visit.
Shoraikaku in Nagaoka, Niigata, the early Showa house of a sake-brewing family, joins Japanese and Western wings with fine woodwork, open free in season.
Ikinariya's middle gate and wall of 1928 form an inner boundary: a light gate with a natural-timber ridge, shingle roof and woven door, beside a wall by the storehouse.
Ikinariya's detached room, a 1928 wing and its largest registered structure, sets Western lamps and a natural-wood rail within a Japanese hall, cranes throughout.
An early Showa gate and walls in Niigata City: a light copper-roofed timber gate open above the lintel, set between stepped reinforced-concrete walls 11 m long.
An early Showa gate and wall in Niigata City: a narrow copper-roofed gate with a lattice door and a 7.9 m wall faced with cedar bark held by split bamboo.