Taishō
大正Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Taishō period (1912 – 1926). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
On the Mikuma River bank at Hita, 25 metres of mortared cobble rise about three metres, topped by a metre-high brick fence with iron gates above the river steps.
Built in 1918 by master builder Tetsukawa Yosuke, this hilltop brick church above Hirado Strait pairs a dark exterior with a pale, camellia-carved interior.
A small blue clapboard barbershop of the late Taisho era in Shimabara, Nagasaki, its entrance arch borrowed from Zen temple windows. Registered in 2003, now a cafe.
Set between two brewhouses at Imazato Sake Brewery in Hasami, Nagasaki, this Taisho-era building began as a brown-rice store, with the master brewer's room above.
Built in 1926 in Hirado's old samurai quarter, the Uchino Family Residence Main House sets a family wing and an L-shaped reception wing either side of its entrance.
Around 1926 the Uchino Family Residence Brick Wall was built of slag brick to enclose a small Hirado garden, a half-brick wall braced by piers and capped in brick.
Umegae Sake Brewery Storage Warehouse is a Taisho-era storehouse in Sasebo on an English-bond brick base, with a sake press at the west end of its ground floor.
A Taisho-era wall along the Kato Sake Brewery street front in Shimabara, 16 m long with a corner turn, earth on a kirikomi-hagi stone base up to 3.4 m high.
A Taisho-era yakuimon gate 2.5 m wide beside the Kato Sake Brewery house in Shimabara, with a crossbeam on stone-footed posts and a plastered ridge. Registered 2008.
A two-story brick and concrete lookout built in 1925 on Katashima's summit to track test torpedoes through a projecting triangular window. Registered in 2024.
A torpedo preparation hall built around 1918 on Katashima and raised in 1939. Its walls pair Hario stone with slag brick. Registered in 2024; interior now closed.
A concrete artificial island built in 1918 about 50 meters off Katashima to launch test torpedoes. Its brick tower survives, and it was registered in 2024.
A 45-meter five-arch concrete jetty built in 1918 to carry torpedoes on rails from Katashima to an offshore launch island. It was registered as a cultural property.
A small stone fuel store built in 1918 beside the machine room on Katashima. Its tuff walls and interlocking corners show careful work. Registered 2024.
The Sasebo Civic Cultural Hall, the navy's Triumphal Memorial Hall of 1923 and registered in 1997, is a symmetrical concrete hall, still in use and free to visit.
The main house of the Tsutsumiuchi Residence in Shimabara, Nagasaki, is a late Taisho dwelling in the castle's third bailey, its rooms stepped toward the garden.
The Nakagawa Bridge of 1918 in Nagasaki carries the old highway over the Narutaki River on a level stone arch; upstream stands the bridge of 1654 it renamed.
The former official residence of the mayor of Nagasaki, built in 1922, is a mansard-roofed house faced in terracotta, with a bay window and Secession-style details.
Keirin Hall at Nagasaki University, the 1919 brick research hall of the former Nagasaki Higher Commercial School, is symmetrical with Secession ornament.
The Himi Tunnel in Nagasaki, registered in 2002, is a 642-metre road tunnel of 1926, one of Japan's first built for motor traffic, with ornate Taisho-era portals.