Taishō

Discover Tooker House, a registered Tangible Cultural Property in Omihachiman, Shiga Prefecture. Designed by William Merrell Vories in 1918 as a tuberculosis sanatorium, this elegant wooden building embodies his philosophy of healing through sunlight, fresh air, and compassionate design.

The Enryaku-ji Daishoin is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property located in the Todo area of Mount Hiei's Enryaku-ji Temple, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Originally built around 1919 as part of tobacco magnate Murai Kichibei's Tokyo estate, this refined shoin-style building was relocated to Mount Hiei in 1928. Designed by renowned architect Takeda Goichi, it features a grand karahafu entrance, the magnificent Kyokko-no-Ma reception hall, and a moon-viewing platform overlooking Lake Biwa.

Discover the Enryaku-ji Daishoin Garden Gate, a registered tangible cultural property originally part of the Murai Kichibei mansion in Tokyo. Designed by renowned architect Takeda Goichi and relocated to Mt. Hiei in 1928, this elegant gate stands within the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Enryaku-ji Temple.

The Former Shiga Bank Konan Branch, located along the historic Soma Kaido road in Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, is a reinforced concrete bank building completed in 1925 to a design by William Merrell Vories. Featuring Ionic columns and a semicircular arched window in classical Western style, it was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2015.

Built around 1919 by the Ōmi merchant Tanaka family, this great hall frames its garden through verandas and Taishō glass, and now serves the Ōmi Shōnintei restaurant.

This 1919 plaster storehouse stands at the northwest corner, with a boarded skirt, a separate roof over its core, and a notched eaves band, shaping the post-town street.

Built around 1919 by the Ōmi merchant Tanaka family, this eight-mat tea room works round bamboo and fine woods into its alcove, and now forms part of the Ōmi Shōnintei.

Built in 1919 for the Ōmi merchant Tanaka family, this two-storey timber house lays out grid-plan rooms open to the garden, and now houses the Ōmi Shōnintei restaurant.

The Kyakuden Tsūyōmon at Saikyō-ji is a Taishō hira-karamon in the board fence along the guest hall, a plain gate carried by its fine proportion.

The Karamon before the Daishi-den at Saikyō-ji is a four-legged gate of 1917. Under a cypress-bark roof, dragons and lions are carved above the beam.

The everyday gate west of the Daishi-den at Saikyō-ji is a Taishō hira-karamon on a stone platform. Plain yet ample, it centers on a bold frog-leg strut along the ridge.

The Mizuya of the Daishi-den at Saikyō-ji is a tiny hexagonal water pavilion, six posts carrying a six-sided roof over a round flower-shaped basin.

The Shoin at Saikyō-ji, built in 1916 facing the guest hall, spans thirteen bays by nine and was raised for a ceaseless-nenbutsu rite the next year.

Discover the Former Genshoden at Sasaki Shrine in Azuchi, Shiga Prefecture — a Taisho-era guest hall originally built for noble visitors, now a nationally registered tangible cultural property known as Sōfūen, within the sacred grounds of the ancestral shrine of the Sasaki clan.

Built in 1925, the Ema Hall of Tarobogu Aga Shrine displays votive plaques, many praying for victory. This tiled-roof hall was listed as a Cultural Property in 2019.

Joined to the Main Hall on Mount Akagami, the 1924 Prayer Hall lets pilgrims worship the kami of victory at the sanctuary's edge. Listed as a Cultural Property in 2019.

The Niki Family Residence Western-style Building in Konan, Koka City, Shiga Prefecture, is a two-story wooden Western-style house built in 1923 by a Kobe carpenter. Featuring half-timbered gable walls, German plaster exteriors, and classical columned entrance, it was registered as a national Tangible Cultural Property in 1997.

The oldest of the estate's three registered buildings in Higashiomi, Shiga: a kura of about 1919, facing the road with board skirting below and corrugated iron above.

Fujii Honke's main house began as a merchant home in Hino, rebuilt at this Aisho brewery around 1960. Its stepped roofline sets formal rooms apart from the work hall.

The Fujii Honke shoin is a single-story guest wing of three linked blocks. Rebuilt here at a right angle to the main house, it reflects a Taisho merchant family's taste.