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 Sano Shoten Store and Residence in Nuttari, Niigata, is a 1937 corner merchant house with bracketed eaves and vertical board siding of local tradition.
Three slow sand filter beds in use at the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata, since 1933, 70.9 meters by 28 meters with coping-stone edges. Registered in 2011.
A 1933 two-family staff house inside the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata, with a hipped tile roof and weatherboard walls. Listed 2011; seen at spring openings.
The 1933 timber office at the heart of the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata, whose curved red-tile roof recalls a Shinto shrine. Listed 2011; see it from the gate.
A 1933 intake pump house on the Igarashi River in Sanjo, Niigata: a timber cottage with a gabled porch hiding a 5.6-meter intake well. Listed 2011; interior closed.
A 1933 concrete gateway at the Osaki plant's river intake in Sanjo, Niigata: paired 2.1-meter posts with coping stones and splayed wing walls. Registered 2011.
An open-sided 1933 shed at the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata, where filter sand is washed; its columns are old railway rails forked into a Y. Registered 2011.
A 1933 pump house at the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata, with plastered walls, round-arched windows and a Lombard band; it pumps water up to the reservoir.
A 1933 concrete well at the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata, that receives river water and feeds the slow sand filters; 3.6 meters across. Registered in 2011.
A 1933 buried tank at the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata, holding treated water under a grassy mound with six vents before it is pumped uphill. Registered 2011.
A 1933 hilltop reservoir at the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata: two basins under an earth mound with 36 vents and a classical machine room, serving by gravity.
The 1933 main gate of the Osaki waterworks in Sanjo, Niigata: granite posts 4.4 meters apart, wing walls and six subsidiary posts, 13 meters long. Registered 2011.
A 1933 meter house by the Osaki reservoir in Sanjo, Niigata: just 3.9 square meters, with a cornice and canopy; it once held a British Venturi meter. Listed 2011.
The Seikokan Main Building at Deyu Onsen, Niigata, registered in 2015, is a three-storey timber inn of about 1928 whose rooms each use different prized woods.
Dairinji's storehouse of 1928 was moved from a blacksmith's lot in 1986. Its walls set namako lattice against black plaster, with crane-and-tortoise reliefs on the eaves.
Rebuilt in concrete in 1959 after a fire, this Joetsu temple hall pairs a barrel-vault roof and spires once called "Indian style" with a column-free tatami hall.
Nakahara Family Residence Rear Gate and Wall in Akatsuka, Niigata: a braced gate of about 1935 with a copper roof and 63 meters of wall on the north edge.
Nakahara Family Residence Front Gate and Wall in Akatsuka, Niigata: a 1935 bracketed gate with 69 meters of plastered wall, visible from the road year-round.
Built in 1931 at an 1846 Niigata restaurant, this two-story sukiya wing holds a tea room below and paired rooms above. Its gable screen won registration in 2000.
An early-Showa storehouse at a Niigata restaurant, with tiled namako lower walls and double doors stacked in matching pairs. Registered in 2000; now a dining room.