Taishō

The foyer and lobby of Frank Lloyd Wright's 1923 Imperial Hotel, moved from Tokyo to Museum Meiji-mura, where carved stone and terracotta line a three-story atrium.

Originally guarding the Marunouchi south plaza of Tokyo Station, this 1914 octagonal police box mirrors Tatsuno Kingo's iconic station design. Now preserved at Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi.

Discover the Meiji-mura Brazilian Immigrant House, a registered tangible cultural property originally built in 1919 in São Paulo, Brazil, by Japanese immigrants. Now preserved at the Museum Meiji-mura in Inuyama, Aichi, this unique wooden house blends Japanese carpentry with Brazilian materials, offering visitors a rare glimpse into the pioneering spirit of Japanese emigrants.

An early Taisho storehouse of a cotton wholesaler in Okada, Chita, Aichi, with a raised floor and plastered walls; now a weaving workshop for Chita cotton.

Yahira Shrine Sacred Fence is a 28-metre roofed board fence raised in 1918 around the shrine's 1700 sanctuary in Shinshiro, Aichi, kept low so its roof still shows.

Hidden deep in the mountains of Kumakogen, Ehime, the Daishido of Iwayaji Temple — the 45th sacred site of the Shikoku Pilgrimage — was completed in 1920 under the supervision of architect Kawaguchi Shoichi. This nationally designated Important Cultural Property masterfully fuses traditional Japanese temple architecture with Western details such as entasis columns, rose-and-cord capitals, and column fluting. Set against towering conglomerate cliffs, the hall is celebrated as a landmark of modern Japanese religious architecture. This guide explores its design highlights, visitor information, and nearby attractions.

Uchikoza, a timber playhouse of 1916 in Uchiko, Ehime, built by townspeople to mark the Taisho enthronement, has a revolving stage; it is closed for repairs.

The Dōgo Onsen Honkan, in Matsuyama on the island of Shikoku, is the timber-framed centerpiece of what many consider Japan's oldest hot spring. Its four interconnected buildings — the Kami-no-Yu Main Hall (1894), the Yūshinden / Tama-no-Yu Wing (1899), and the South Wing and Genkan entrance hall (1924) — were designated a National Important Cultural Property in 1994, the first public bathhouse in Japan to be so honored. Designed by master carpenter Sakamoto Matahachirō, the complex features Japan's only imperial bathing chamber, the Botchan Room linked to novelist Natsume Sōseki, and a small drum tower whose Toki-daiko still marks the hours. Fully reopened in July 2024 after extensive seismic and conservation work, it remains a working bathhouse where visitors can soak in pure, source-flow hot spring water inside a living cultural treasure.

Bansuiso in Matsuyama is a 1922 villa built for Count Hisamatsu to a design by Kigo Shichiro. A sailing-ship window lights the main stair. Open daily except Mondays.

A 1926 former cinema in Uchiko, Ehime, with a stepped Western-style front, a veranda and a hexagonal drum tower; closed in 1965, it now opens for events and visits.

An early-Taisho clay-walled brewery on a street corner in Yoshida, Uwajima, with a rough granite base, latticed windows and a small canopy on iron brackets.

Kigo Shichiro's symmetrical 1924 concrete office at the wharf gate of Mitsu Port in Matsuyama, faced in orange and white tile; a symbol of Mitsuhama shipping.

A Taisho-era water intake in Kihoku, Ehime. A dressed-stone arch 2.4 metres high opens onto an unlined shaft 21.8 metres deep, fed by a spring. Listed 2012.

Imabari Radium Onsen in Ehime is a reinforced-concrete public bathhouse of the late Taisho era, with a stacked polygonal tower and octagonal domes over its baths.

Umebijin Sake Brewery Residence Main House in Yawatahama, Ehime, dates from 1916. Its south gable is mortar scored to imitate stone for the passing street.

Umebijin Sake Brewery Brewing House in Yawatahama, Ehime, dates from 1916. Two halls meet in a T: a koji room upstairs, a pressing room below the corner.

Built in 1919 at Kawanoishi in Yawatahama, this three-storey timber hall reared silkworms under a king-post truss, its street wall all board doors and glass above.

This two-storey hall of 1919 stands a full storey above its neighbour on the Kawanoishi slope, divided from it by a brick firewall that breaks the tiled roofline.

Located in Kanou-cho, Shikokuchuo City, Ehime Prefecture, the Onishi Internal Medicine Clinic Examination Building is a single-story wooden medical building constructed in the early Taisho period (1912-1925). Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2001, it exemplifies the giyofu (pseudo-Western) architectural style with its traditional irimoya tiled roof above Western-style clapboard walls. Decorative blind fanlights and a covered carriage entrance reflect the unique character of provincial modern medical architecture in Japan.

Tucked into a quiet ravine along the Koyabu River in Ozu City, Ehime Prefecture, Koyabu Onsen Honkan is a rare three-story wooden hot spring inn from the Taisho era. Designated a Registered Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2000, this irimoya-roofed tower-style ryokan is still a working inn, offering silky alkaline waters renowned as a beautifying bath and a vivid glimpse of Japan's traditional toji-ba bathing culture.