Shōwa

Discover Cafe Paris (1927), a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Chichibu. Experience authentic Showa-era atmosphere, traditional omurice, and stunning signboard architecture just 80 minutes from Tokyo. A living heritage restaurant run by the same family for four generations.

Discover Asahi Bridge in Tokorozawa, Saitama — a 1930 reinforced concrete bridge with elegant Art Deco design, built on the historic Hikōki Shindō road that linked the train station to Japan's first airfield. A nationally registered tangible cultural property.

A 1933 wooden ryotei in Ogawa, Saitama, registered in 2004. Its second floor holds a seventy-mat hall with a tokonoma facing a stage, behind a layered tiled roof.

A 1933 garden pavilion by a pond in Ogawa, Saitama, registered in 2004. Its eight-mat tea room juts over the water under a boat-bottom ceiling, railed on two sides.

Built in 1928 as a Bushu Bank branch to designs by Maeda Kenjiro, this Doric-columned concrete building stands among Kawagoe's black-plastered kura storehouses.

A 1927 Western-style timber building on a Kawagoe corner, built as a timber showroom and later the Rokkenmachi Post Office. Registered in 1997, still in use.

The Heiwa no To at Menuma Shoden is a two-storied pagoda built in 1958 to mourn the war dead and pray for peace, a fine postwar work made entirely of zelkova.

Built in 1934 by the Moroi family, postmasters here since 1872, this Honjo landmark wraps a Japanese timber frame in tile and Art Deco lines on the old Nakasendo.

Discover Koike Tobacco Shop, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Chichibu, Saitama. Built in the early Showa era, this ornate Western-style commercial building now houses a heritage hotel and café on Bamba-dori, the historic approach to Chichibu Shrine.

A 1931 reinforced concrete water tower in Kodama, Honjo, Saitama, designed by prefectural engineer Miyahara Yujiro. Now a time-signal tower, registered in 2000.

Discover Kondo Dental Clinic, a nationally registered tangible cultural property in Chichibu, Saitama. Built in 1927, this charming half-timber-style building blends Western and Japanese design and remains an active dental practice to this day.

The Former Sakata Clinic in Menuma, Kumagaya City, Saitama Prefecture, is a reinforced concrete obstetrics and internal medicine clinic built in 1931. Featuring scratch-tile facades and Art Deco interior fittings, it is registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property as a precious example of regional modern architecture. Located near the National Treasure Menuma Shodenzan temple, it offers a rare window into early Showa-era design and medical history.

Discover the World Unknown Soldiers' Tomb, a striking reinforced concrete memorial atop Mt. Taikan in Ogose, Saitama. Registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 2020, this non-denominational mausoleum honors war dead from over 60 nations and offers panoramic views of the Kanto Plain.

Taiyoken (Modern-tei Taiyoken) is a Western-style restaurant in Kawagoe City, Saitama Prefecture, founded in 1922 during the Taisho era. Its two-story wooden building, constructed around 1929, features distinctive colored plaster walls and Expressionist architectural motifs, earning its designation as a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2004. As a precious example of post-Great Kanto Earthquake commercial architecture, visitors can enjoy traditional Western cuisine in a stunning Taisho-era atmosphere adorned with stained glass windows and parabolic arches.

Takioka Bridge is a steel eight-span plate girder bridge completed in 1928 on the historic Nakasendo highway, spanning the Koyama River between Honjo and Fukaya in Saitama Prefecture. Designated as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property and a Modern Civil Engineering Heritage of Japan, the bridge features elegant granite balustrades and English bond brick abutments. Set in the peaceful countryside near the birthplace of Shibusawa Eiichi, it offers a quiet stroll through Japan's modern engineering history.

Discover the Tokyo Golf Club Clubhouse in Sayama, Saitama — a 1963 architectural gem designed by Antonin Raymond. This Registered Tangible Cultural Property features rustic log construction, a lodge-style lounge, and over a century of golfing heritage.

A registered wooden archery hall in Kuki, Saitama, built around 1932 by the physician Takagi Tasuku, with arrow-feather window bars and bow-curved ceiling battens.

Target house of a private archery range in Kuki, Saitama, built around 1932 and registered in 2023. Fourteen square metres, open at the front, an earth bank inside.

Discover Mase Weir (Mase Dam), eastern Japan's oldest agricultural gravity concrete dam, completed in 1937 in Honjo City, Saitama. A Registered Tangible Cultural Property surrounded by cherry blossoms, autumn foliage, and Lake Mase.

Discover the Mase Dam Management Bridge, a 1938 reinforced concrete bridge registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in Honjo City, Saitama. Explore the oldest agricultural gravity dam in eastern Japan and scenic Lake Mase.