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.
Completed in 1937 at Yayoi and registered in 2010, this was the first baseball facility in Japan to gain the status. A cantilevered arch carries the seating roof.
Tokyo Tower in Shiba Park, built in 1958, is a 333-metre steel broadcasting tower that outstripped the Eiffel Tower, loved as a symbol of post-war recovery.
Built around 1931 beside the Azumabashi crossing in Asakusa, this small concrete subway entrance carries curved eaves, round columns and a copper temple roof.
Completed in 1953 on the rim of the Kanda River gorge in Tokyo, this white concrete entrance to Ochanomizu Station wraps ribbon windows around a curved corner.
The Yotsuya Overpass of the Tokyo Metro Marunouchi Line, a steel Gerber bridge of 1959, crosses the JR lines at 30 degrees to carry Yotsuya Station by the moat.
The Faculty of Agriculture main building of TUAT in Fuchu, Tokyo, built in 1934 for the Tokyo Higher School of Agriculture and Forestry, is crowned by a clock tower.
A 1953 timber rental apartment in Zoshigaya, Tokyo, registered in 2018, where Tezuka Osamu lived for three and a half years, notable for its high-quality postwar design.
Nihon Gakuen Building No. 1 in Setagaya, Tokyo, a concrete school of 1936, has a dignified main entrance lined with square columns rising the full three storeys.
A timber church of 1936 near Shimokitazawa, Tokyo, with a battlemented tower, a rose-window relief and a hammer-beam roof inside. Registered in 2003 after repairs.
Rebuilt in 1929 after the 1923 earthquake, this reinforced concrete Gothic church on Kasuga-dori, Tokyo, puts a kindergarten below the sanctuary. Registered in 1998.
Asakusa St. John's Church in Kuramae, Tokyo: a 1929 concrete Anglican church with Gothic buttresses, restored in 1955 and open for prayer when its doors are open.
Tokyo Holy Cross Church Sanctuary in Setagaya: a 1961 timber chapel by Antonin Raymond's office with a column-free laminated vault; registered in 2025.
Tokyo All Saints Church Chapel in Sengoku, Bunkyo: a 1931 concrete Anglican chapel by Bergamini, rebuilt on its frame after 1945, its bell tower a local landmark.
Mejirogaoka Church Chapel in Shimo-Ochiai, Tokyo: a 1950 Baptist chapel by Endo Arata, Wright's assistant, with great longitudinal arches and a pointed bell tower.
The 1939 former Hachijo branch office of Tokyo, an H-plan timber building registered in 1999 and now the island's museum of history and folklore.
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.
The Blue Box House in Setagaya, Tokyo, a 1971 house by Miyawaki Mayumi, is a blue box floating on the Kokubunji escarpment, lit through a glass stairwell.
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.