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.
Yoshino no Mune, a 1935 wing at Arai Ryokan in Shuzenji, stands apart like a villa, finished in fine Amagi cedar. It is remembered as the wing the inn favoured most.
Built in 1939 in Shimizu Ward, Shizuoka City, this registered house sets a gabled east roof against a hipped west roof, with buried cedar inside. A private home.
Honyoshiwara Station on the Gakunan Railway in Fuji has an island platform of 1950 and a shelter of 1968 whose welded steel-tube frame takes the shape of a mushroom.
The Zuiryukaku of Kasuisai in Fukuroi, Shizuoka, is a grand guest hall of 1937 whose rooms are each decorated on their own theme with painted doors and transoms.
The tosu of Kasuisai in Fukuroi, Shizuoka, a Zen lavatory hall of about 1937, enshrines the guardian deity of toilets on a central dais under a wickerwork ceiling.
The Former Nakamura Dressmaking School in Fukuroi, built in 1950 on the old Tokaido road, is a timber school with large classrooms and a badge finial on its gable.
The Former Futamata Town Hall in Hamamatsu, a scratch-tiled timber building of 1936, now houses the Honda Soichiro Monozukuri Museum, open free of charge.
The Former Mackenzie House in Shizuoka, built in 1940 to designs by William Merrell Vories for a tea trader and his wife, is a Spanish-style villa open free.
Built between 1926 and 1945 to hold thread and cloth in Iwata City, this registered warehouse lost its attic floor in 1997 and became the acoustic hall Dolce Souko.
Completed in 1930 and unharmed by the North Izu earthquake that November, this Mishima weather station was registered in 2007 for its design. Interior now closed.
Built in 1931 by the architect of the concrete main hall, the priests' quarters at Otowasan Kiyomizudera in Shizuoka join timber craft to modern temple life.
The 1931 main hall of Otowasan Kiyomizudera in Shizuoka is reinforced concrete: seven bays on round columns, bracket sets over the centre, and a rare gabled roof.
The sutra repository of Genmyoji in Iwata, Shizuoka, a small concrete store of 1934 finished to look like stone, is a fine prewar example built to resist fire.
The gateposts and wall of Genmyoji in Iwata, Shizuoka, built in the early Showa period of hollow tamped-earth blocks, are a rare record of local plastering.
Discover the Shimizu Port Telpher in Shizuoka—a 1928 steel crane that revolutionized lumber loading. Japan's only surviving telpher crane, now a Registered Tangible Cultural Property and Mechanical Engineering Heritage, stands beside Mount Fuji views at Shimizu Marine Park.
The Takeyama Family Residence Main House in Tenno-cho, Hamamatsu, Shizuoka Prefecture, is a two-story wooden dwelling built in 1937 and designed by Takeyama Kenzaburō. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property, it is admired for its shikoro-buki-style roof, clapboard exterior, and refined interior featuring carefully selected premium timbers.
The Chojiya Store in Maruko, Shizuoka, is a 1971 thatched teahouse on the old Tokaido, built with reused farmhouse timbers and inspired by Hiroshige's print.
The Choseikan Kobaiso in Fujieda is a 1933 pondside reception pavilion with pale pink plaster walls and plum-blossom motifs, true to its name of fragrant plum.
The Choseikan Main Building in Fujieda, built in 1939 for the inn that founded Shida Onsen, has a hip-and-gable porch and guest rooms finished with curved timbers.
Built in 1937 for a mill owner in Iwata's velveteen-weaving Fukude district, this timber house was registered in 2013 with a warehouse now serving as a concert hall.