Shōwa

Discover the Hachijojima History and Folklore Museum, a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in 1939. Housed in a Western-style wooden government building on Hachijojima Island, the museum showcases the island's exile history, Kihachijo silk, and Jomon-era artifacts. Reopened in October 2025 after major renovations.

Built in 1927 from a Kobe merchant's bequest and designed by Ito Chuta, this Romanesque hall in Kunitachi, Tokyo, hides carved creatures around its arches.

A 53-square-metre timber gatehouse of 1931 with a French tile roof and half-timbered walls, standing on the central axis of the Kunitachi campus in Tokyo.

Completed in 1929 for Tokyo University of Commerce, this two-storey block in Kunitachi wraps a courtyard and echoes the Romanesque idiom of its famous neighbour.

Discover Blue Box House, a 1971 Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Tokyo's Setagaya designed by acclaimed architect Mayumi Miyawaki—a cantilevered blue cube floating over the Kokubunji cliff line and an iconic example of his celebrated Box Series.

Hori Shoten in Shimbashi, Tokyo, is a reinforced concrete office block of 1932, registered in 1998. Scratch tile walls, banded windows, a cafe on the ground floor.

The Matsui Residence gate and wall in Nishikata, Bunkyo, Tokyo, date from about 1932 and were registered in 2024. A doubled tile roof meets a 20-metre concrete wall.

At a quiet corner of Kyobashi in central Tokyo stands the Mayuyama Ryusendo Store, a 1960 masterpiece by architect Kenzo Tohata. With its andesite frame and lustrous black lacquer walls, this Registered Tangible Cultural Property houses a century-old Oriental antiquities dealer and embodies Tokyo's postwar commercial revival.

The Kengyo no Ma at the Miyagi Michio Memorial Hall in Kagurazaka, Tokyo, is the personal study where the blind koto virtuoso Miyagi Michio — composer of the iconic "Haru no Umi" (Spring Sea) — spent his final creative years. Built in 1948, this elegant single-story wooden building was registered as a National Registered Tangible Cultural Property in 2011 for its refined traditional architectural design.

Museum 1999 (Former Chiba Tsunegoro Residence), located behind Aoyama-dori in Shibuya, Tokyo, is a grand Art Deco mansion completed in 1934. Registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2018, it houses one of the world's largest collections of works by Erté. Discover this rare early Showa-era Western-style residence that survived the Tokyo air raids.

Dr. Mori's House in Honkomagome, Bunkyo Ward, Tokyo, is the 1951 debut work of renowned architect Kiyoshi Seike, built for Dr. Mori Oto — eldest son of literary giant Mori Ōgai. This National Registered Tangible Cultural Property achieves remarkable functional beauty through free spatial composition and simple materials, marking a pivotal moment in postwar Japanese residential architecture.

The Anyo Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property standing right outside JR Shinjuku Station's Central East Exit, is a 1968 modernist masterpiece featuring stacked, rotating octagonal floors designed by Frank Lloyd Wright scholar Shindo Akashi. Inside, the kaiseki restaurant Kakiden showcases exquisite sukiya-style tea rooms by Order of Culture recipient Yoshiro Taniguchi. Discover this hidden architectural gem where bold geometric design meets refined Japanese tradition in the heart of Tokyo.

My House, the architect Seike Kiyoshi's own 1954 residence in Ota, Tokyo, is a 51-square-metre one-room concrete house registered in 2017 as a standard for design.

Waro Flat No. 4 is a 1936 wooden apartment house on an Azabudai lane in Tokyo, registered in 2019. Its eight dwellings all differ and each gains a south window.