Taishō

Discover the Former Asakura House (Kyu Asakura House), an Important Cultural Property in Daikanyama, Tokyo. Built in 1919, this Taisho-era wooden mansion features elegant tatami rooms, detailed woodwork, and a stunning hillside strolling garden with stone lanterns and seasonal foliage.

Eitai Bridge, spanning the Sumida River between Chuo and Koto cities in Tokyo, is a historic bridge with origins dating back to 1698. The current steel tied-arch structure, completed in 1926 as part of the post-Great Kanto Earthquake reconstruction, was designated a National Important Cultural Property in 2007 for its majestic parabolic arch design and engineering significance. Discover the bridge's connections to the forty-seven ronin, ukiyo-e art, and its stunning blue nighttime illumination.

Discover the Echisou Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Bunkyo, Tokyo. Built in 1924 as a thread merchant's headquarters, this reinforced concrete gem features elegant dentils, arched windows, and a distinctive corner tower.

Discover the Edoya Store and Residence in Nihonbashi, Tokyo — a Registered Tangible Cultural Property built in 1924. This Art Deco kanban-style building houses Japan's oldest brush specialty shop, founded in 1718 under the Tokugawa shoguns.

Standing at the gateway of Asakusa in Tokyo, the Main Building of Kamiya Bar is a six-story reinforced concrete commercial building completed in 1921. As Japan's first establishment to call itself a bar, it survived both the Great Kanto Earthquake and wartime destruction, and was registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property in 2011. Discover its iconic triple-arched windows and taste the legendary Denki Bran cocktail created by founder Kamiya Denbei.

Standing quietly within Bunko-no-Mori Park in Shinagawa Ward, Tokyo, the Former Mitsui Bunko Second Library is a Registered National Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1922. Recognized as one of Japan's oldest surviving wall-bearing reinforced concrete buildings, it was crafted with cutting-edge techniques to safeguard the Mitsui family's historical archives. Visitors can admire its imitation-tile facade, distinctive checkerboard windows, and a story of resilience that includes surviving the Great Kantō Earthquake, all set in a tranquil green park.

The Friends Center in Mita, Minato Ward, Tokyo, is a two-story wooden missionary residence designed by the Vories Architectural Office in 1922. As one of the very few pre-Great Kanto Earthquake Western-style buildings still standing in Tokyo, it was registered as a Tangible Cultural Property of Japan in 2005. The building preserves distinctive Taisho-era architectural features including a slate hip roof, brick chimney, and tall sash windows.

The 1914 main hall of Jōgū-ji, a Pure Land temple in Hiroo, Tokyo, joined Japan's Tangible Cultural Property register in 2017. Its gabled front is the draw.

Jogu-ji's reception annex in Hiroo, Tokyo, dates to around 1914. Registered in 2017, its plain rooms and comb-shaped transom show restrained Taisho temple design.

Built as the home of Yasui Tetsu, the university's first dean. At 111 sq m it is much the smallest of the seven registered buildings on this campus today.

Home to the university's foreign teaching staff, four units above and shared rooms below. Horizontal eaves and carved capitals show Raymond under Wright.

Completed in 1924 among the earliest buildings on this campus: an E-shaped plan, a hall projecting behind the entrance, and a Wrightian central section.

Built for the science classrooms and the largest of the seven at 1,453 sq m. Its south half came first, and triple steel sash windows face Building No. 7.

A Taisho-period wooden soba restaurant standing amid the office towers of Toranomon, Tokyo. Designated as a Registered Tangible Cultural Property, this beautiful building with ornamental chidori-hafu gables has served handmade soba since 1872. Enjoy one of Edo's three great soba traditions in a structure that survived the Great Kanto Earthquake, wartime air raids, and was carefully relocated to preserve its heritage.

Discover the Nakae Shop Building, a Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Taito, Tokyo. Built in 1924 by shrine carpenters after the Great Kanto Earthquake, this wooden structure houses Japan's last surviving sakura nabe (horse meat hotpot) restaurant from the Yoshiwara pleasure quarter era.

An Important Cultural Property film recording Onoe Matsunosuke—Japan's first movie star—performing the iconic "Farewell at Sakurai" before the future Emperor Shōwa at Japan's first motion picture exhibition in 1921. Only the second film ever designated nationally; a digitally restored version is freely available online, with related exhibits at the National Film Archive of Japan in Kyobashi, Tokyo.

Discover Metempsychosis (Seisei Ruten), Yokoyama Taikan's monumental 40-meter ink scroll painting depicting the eternal cycle of water. Designated as an Important Cultural Property, this masterwork is housed at MOMAT in Tokyo's Kitanomaru Park.

Built in 1914 at the Railway Agency's Shinbashi Works, the wooden Nade 6141 is the oldest surviving bogie electric railcar in Japan and the prototype of today's commuter trains, introducing the three-door layout and multiple-unit control system. Designated a National Important Cultural Property in 2017, it is preserved and displayed at The Railway Museum in Saitama City.