Shōwa
Tokyo · 昭和Browse Tokyo’s cultural heritage from the Shōwa period (1926 – 1989). Filter by type and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
The Onoya tabi shop at a Ginza crossing in Tokyo, a small timber building of 1951 on a five-sided plot, is a rare survivor of Ginza just after the war.
The Ginza Lion Building in Tokyo, built in 1934, houses a beer hall of tiled walls and a glass-tile mural that the Agency calls a masterpiece of its kind.
The Kurosawa Building in Ueno, Tokyo, a 1930 eye hospital, has Expressionist details, a rooftop ultraviolet therapy room and stained glass by Ogawa Sanchi.
Gengi Sanbo in Ogikubo, Tokyo, the 1955 sukiya home of Kadokawa Gen'yoshi, founder of Kadokawa Shoten, opens free to visitors as the Suginami Poetry House.
International Christian University Taizanso Front Gate, a thatched yakuimon of about 1936 whose beams reuse timber from Edo Castle's Saiwaibashi Gate.
International Christian University Taizanso Storehouse, a reinforced concrete kura of about 1936 in earthen style, with a raised storeroom and tiled gable roof.
International Christian University Taizanso Garage, a clapboard car house of about 1936 just inside the villa gate, a registered relic of suburban motoring.
International Christian University Taizanso Shoin, a tiled 1936 reception wing with two tatami rooms and verandas, repaired after the 1966 fire and used for tea.
Built in 1930 to hold the observatory's books, this two-storey concrete block at Mitaka in Tokyo shows scratch tile, slim continuous canopies and one round window.
Completed in 1930 at Mitaka in Tokyo, the tower known as the Einstein Tower is itself the telescope tube, sending sunlight 20 metres down to a basement spectrograph.
Kosugiyu in Koenji, Tokyo, a public bath of 1933 north of the station, has a dormer gable, a cusped-gable porch and a bath hall with clerestory windows and a mural.
The Gotoh Museum main building in Setagaya, Tokyo, built in 1960 to designs by Yoshida Isoya, recalls Heian palaces in concrete with round posts and deep eaves.
Hiroo Elementary School in Shibuya is a 1932 reinforced-concrete schoolhouse from Tokyo's post-earthquake rebuilding, still in use with a rooftop fire-watch tower.
A 1932 Western house in Tokyo's Sendagi by architect Yabe Matakichi: German-influenced design, stained glass of warships, and links to a beriberi doctor.
The Shimura Residence's registered gate and 57-meter Oya-stone wall in Seijo, Tokyo, built around 1939 and topped with a hedge, recall how the suburb was planned.
In Tokyo's Shiba district by Zōjō-ji, Jōgyō-in's 1931 ossuary copies a wooden mausoleum's roof, cusped windows and carved porch in concrete. Registered in 2022.
Above Senzoku Pond in Ota, Tokyo, the main house of Shofuso is an early-Showa sukiya home with low eaves, a wide veranda and choice timber. Registered in 2003.
The Shofuso Machiai in Ota, Tokyo is a cedar-log waiting arbor, a registered property where tea guests paused before an early-Showa gathering near Senzoku Pond.
An early-Shōwa gate near Tokyo's Senzoku Pond, barely 1.7 m wide, with a rivet-studded door, a carved frog-leg strut, and reused timber from ancient Hōryū-ji.
The Showa Era Life Museum in Ota, Tokyo, is a 1951 family home built with a public housing loan within 18 tsubo, shown with its household goods as a museum.