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.
Built in 1932 in Shoan, Suginami Ward, this Tokyo house sets a flat-roofed Western parlour against a tiled irimoya gable. Registered nationally in January 2010.
Tsubameyu in Ueno, Tokyo, a public bath of 1950, has a hip-and-gable shoe porch, a bath hall with steam vents and a tall concrete chimney that marks it as a sento.
This 1953 timber house in Midori, Sumida City, groups a formal wing with a tea room and drawing room. Registered in 2008, it opens only for rare guided viewings.
The bell tower of Tokyo Cathedral in Sekiguchi, built in 1964 to Kenzo Tange's design, is a 62-metre concrete tower tapering to a cross, with four bells.
Saint Mary's Cathedral in Sekiguchi, Tokyo, built in 1964 to Kenzo Tange's design, is formed of eight leaning concrete shells under a cross-shaped skylight.
Built in 1931 as a chemistry lab needing its own ventilation, West Building 1 was the first permanent building on Tokyo Tech's Ookayama campus, in Romanesque dress.
Funded wholly by alumni donations after the war and designed by Taniguchi Yoshiro, this hall sinks its seating into a slope so it reads as one storey from the gate.
Built in 1934 after fire destroyed the old campus, Tokyo Tech's Main Building in Meguro runs 127.4 metres, its clock tower anchoring a long pale scratch-tile facade.
Rebuilt in 1932 after the Great Kanto Earthquake, this reinforced-concrete building on the Etchujima campus wears scratch tile and a great semicircular arch.
Built in 1932 as the campus library alongside Building 1, this scratch-tile structure carries a rounded, ship-like projection at its rear on the Etchujima campus.
Built in 1933 as the main building of the Fisheries Training Institute, this symmetrical scratch-tile structure centers on four vertical pilasters.
Raymond's last prewar work here, finished in 1938 under Sugiyama Masanori. A concrete tower, precast tracery, geometric stained glass, a fan-shaped hall.
Built in 1927 for the family of founder A. K. Reischauer, in the years when Raymond was moving out from under Wright. Its ground floor serves students now.
Built in 1931 as the university library, this white concrete hall closes the axis from the front gate. A Latin motto is cut into its wall, and Wright's echo lingers.
Completed in 1933 at Komaba and registered in 2000, this clock tower was designed by Uchida Yoshikazu so the university and First Higher School would read as one.
A 1935 Uchida Gothic building on the site of the old College of Engineering at the University of Tokyo, registered in 1998, with a Gothic-arched approach and brick-tile walls.
Built in 1929 at Komaba for the Aeronautical Research Institute and registered in 2000, Building 13 wraps nine horizontal bands around its mass, striped above.
A 1927 Uchida Gothic building just inside the main gate of the University of Tokyo Hongo campus, registered in 1998, with a Gothic arcade and vertically stressed east front.
A 1935 Uchida Gothic building on the University of Tokyo Hongo campus, registered in 1998, with a church-like Gothic arcade on its ground floor spanning a campus passage.
A 1938 Uchida Gothic building facing Law and Letters Building 1 on the University of Tokyo Hongo campus, registered in 1998, with a Gothic arcade and later rooftop vaults.