Taishō

Completed in 1926 for Tokushima's first modern water supply, this English-bond red-brick pump station became the prefecture's first registered cultural property.

Discover the Hyakunen-gura Smokestack in Miyoshi City, Tokushima — a 9.6-meter brick chimney built in 1922 that once served a local sake brewery. Inscribed with the historic brand name Gishi-shin, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property stands as a quiet witness to Japan's regional industrial heritage.

Standing at the confluence of the Yoshino and Iya rivers in Miyoshi City, Tokushima, the Hyakunengura Former Sake Brewery is a large wooden two-story building completed in 1922. Recognized as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2010, it is celebrated for its luminous, vertically-oriented interior and now serves as a venue for antique displays and live music events.

Completed in 1921, Matsusaka Tunnel in Mugi Town, Tokushima Prefecture, is recognized as Japan's oldest surviving cast-in-place concrete road tunnel. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property, it stands as the centerpiece of the 2-kilometer Uchizuma Hydrangea Road, where 4,000 hydrangeas bloom each June.

At the deepest end of Itamuro Onsen in Nasushiobara, Tochigi Prefecture, Kadoya Ryokan Honkan stands as a rare survivor of a vanishing Japan. Built around 1919 in the eighth year of the Taisho era, this three-story wooden inn was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2016. Its preserved third-floor row of six-mat guest rooms and its distinctive eastern balustrade evoke the atmosphere of an early-twentieth-century therapeutic spa, served by Itamuro's renowned alkaline waters once known as Shimotsuke no Yakuto.

On the second bailey of Karasawayama Castle in Sano, Tochigi, the 1915 kagura hall of Karasawayama Shrine offers a copper-roofed stage for sacred dance.

Crossing a moat of Karasawayama Castle in Sano, Tochigi, the 1924 sacred bridge of Karasawayama Shrine is reinforced concrete disguised as a stone bridge.

Tucked into Kanuma's charming Nekoya Roji alley in Tochigi Prefecture, this 1916 wooden residence blends a refined Japanese zashiki with a Western-style room finished in remarkable stone-imitating mortar work that has survived a century nearly crack-free. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in March 2024.

Kouko Ichibankan, the former Adachi Kimono Shop in Tochigi City, is a rare and well-preserved Taisho-era Western-style commercial building completed in 1923 and now listed as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property. Its mansard copper roof, dormer window, and stone-veneered columns capture the modern spirit of 1920s Japan. Today it houses a handmade soba restaurant, offering visitors to Tochigi's famous storehouse district a taste of both architecture and regional cuisine.

Takagi Kaikan in Nasushiobara City, Tochigi Prefecture, is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan built in 1918 as the headquarters of the Kuroiso Bank. This two-story stone building features Ashino stone and Oya stone walls, semicircular arches, a coffered ceiling, and a spiral staircase from the Taisho era. Today its first floor operates as a restaurant, inviting visitors to dine within a beautifully preserved piece of early 20th-century commercial architecture.

A tiny household Inari shrine of 1926 stands in a corner of the Tanuma Residence in Ashikaga, a nagare-zukuri shrine in a copper-roofed zelkova shelter. Private grounds.

The Old Rice Storehouse is the smallest Tsukada building in Tochigi, at 20 square metres. Built in Taisho times for grain, its tall interior completes the estate.

The Fine-Timber Storehouse is the largest Tsukada building in Tochigi, at 152 square metres. Built for prized timber, it alone of the five is listed as hard to recreate.

Completed in 1926, the Nanto Bank Head Office is a Greek Revival masterpiece designed by Nagano Uheiji, a disciple of Tatsuno Kingo. Featuring distinctive sheep carvings on its Ionic columns, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property — Nara Prefecture's first — stands as a testament to Taisho-era modernization in the ancient capital.

Located in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture, the Kamidaki Power Station is an active hydroelectric facility completed in 1924 and designated as a national Registered Tangible Cultural Property. As the largest and most downstream of three sister stations built during the first phase of Toyama's prefectural electric enterprise on the Joganji River, it features a pioneering reinforced concrete structure with a flat roof—an architectural statement of early modern Japan.

The Sawada Family Residence Main House in Takaoka City, Toyama Prefecture, is a Taisho-era wooden two-story home distinguished by its Western-style exterior featuring a domed two-story tower, ornamental entrance porch, and decorative gable. The interior blends Western reception rooms with traditional Japanese living spaces. Relocated from the woodcarving town of Inami in 1951, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 1997.

The largest building at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, this late-Taisho hall is where sheets are formed by nagashi-zuki and then pressed of water.

A late-Taisho earthen-walled storehouse at the Iwano Heizaburo Paper Mill in Echizen, Fukui, built to guard fine paper from fire and damp, with a formal room upstairs.

In Mikuni's old geisha quarter, Uoshiro joins four buildings: a Meiji townhouse, two earthen storehouses and a Taisho parlor, now a registered-heritage restaurant.

Discover Minami Kawachi Bridge, a 1926 steel lenticular truss bridge spanning Kawachi Reservoir in Kitakyushu. Designated as an Important Cultural Property, it is the only surviving bridge of its kind in Japan.