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 Ichinomiyagawa Bridge on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Fukuroi, built in 1940, joins a steel through girder and concrete spans in a gentle 40-metre curve.
The depot rest house at Tenryu-Futamata Station, built in 1940 behind the office, held a rest room, kitchenette and blueprint room for the engine depot crews.
The elevated water tank at Tenryu-Futamata Station, built about 1940, holds 70 tonnes on six concrete legs and once supplied the steam locomotives of the depot.
The depot office at Tenryu-Futamata Station, built in 1940 for the old Futamata engine depot, overlooks the yard through a tall front of large windows.
The depot pump house at Tenryu-Futamata Station, built in 1940 with a concrete well beside it, worked with the elevated tank to supply water for steam locomotives.
The depot bathhouse at Tenryu-Futamata Station, built in 1940 for steam locomotive crews, has a laundry, changing room and large and small tubs ringed by hot water.
Enshu-Mori Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Mori opened in 1935 and survives almost unaltered, with its carriage porch, wavy window glass and gate doors.
The Otagawa Bridge on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Mori, built in 1935, curves over the Ota River on twelve steel spans, the longest bridge of the first section.
The platform shelter at Kanasashi Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway, dated 1938 by the Agency and 1948 by the railway, rests on pairs of leaning posts.
The elevated water tank at Kanasashi Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway, built about 1938, carries a round, domed tank on four inward-leaning concrete columns.
The island platform at Gansuiji Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway, built in 1940, has a shelter whose roof rests on five free-standing posts braced with rails.
The Kanda Tunnel on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Iwata, built in 1930 for the Komyo Electric Railway, is a 260-metre concrete bore with carefully modelled portals.
The platform at Kiga Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway, built in 1938, carries a 36-metre timber shelter with an exposed truss recalling the line's busy days.
Kiga Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Hamamatsu, built in 1938, has a red-tiled hipped roof, tiled trim and its original built-in benches and ticket gate.
The Kigamachi Viaduct on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway, built in 1938, carries the line about 90 metres through the town of Kiga, crossing the old Himekaido road.
The timber roundhouse at Tenryu-Futamata Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway, built in 1940 beside the turntable, is one of the few roundhouses still in use.
The locomotive turntable at Tenryu-Futamata Station, built in 1940, still turns trains and, with the wooden roundhouse, is the symbol of the Tenryu Hamanako Railway.
Sakuragi Station on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Kakegawa opened in 1935 as one of the line's first three stations and keeps its original wooden ticket gate.
The Seto Bridge on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Hamamatsu, built in 1938, is a continuous concrete girder with a 23-metre span, a bold Ministry of Railways design.
The Setoyama Bridge on the Tenryu Hamanako Railway in Hamamatsu, built in 1940, is a small concrete bridge of three round arches on a slope above the Miyakoda River.