Taishō

Hidden behind the gates of a 350-year-old hot spring inn in Yamaguchi City's Yudaonsen district, Matsudaya Hotel Garden is a Nationally Registered Place of Scenic Beauty designed around 1918 by Ogawa Jihei VII (Ueji), the master gardener who shaped modern Kyoto's most celebrated landscapes. One of the very few Ueji gardens west of Kyoto, it features a four-meter three-tiered waterfall, gently meandering streams, ponds, and stone lanterns. The inn itself was a key meeting place for the architects of the Meiji Restoration, including Saigo Takamori, Kido Takayoshi, and Ito Hirobumi.

Onoda Cement Yamate Club in Sanyo-Onoda City, Yamaguchi Prefecture is a Nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property completed in 1914. Built from concrete blocks manufactured on-site using molds that company president Kasai Shinzo personally brought back from England, the two-story mansion combines Japanese Edo-kiri stone-dressing techniques with Roman-inspired Tuscan columns. It stands as a rare survivor of early Taisho-period block construction and a monument to Japan's first private cement company.

Discover the Former Iwakuni Tax Office (Kyū Iwakuni Zeimusho), a 1925 Renaissance-style Western building and Registered Tangible Cultural Property in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture. The only surviving pre-war tax office in the prefecture, now owned by a sake brewery.

Creative Space Akarenga in Yamaguchi City is a red brick building constructed in 1918 as a book storage for the Yamaguchi Prefectural Library. Saved from demolition by a citizen preservation movement, it was reborn as a cultural venue in 1992 and registered as a Tangible Cultural Property in 1998. Featuring English bond brickwork and a harpsichord celebrating Yamaguchi's ties to Xavier and Western music, it hosts art exhibitions, concerts, and community events.

Sansuien Main Building is a nationally registered tangible cultural property hot spring inn in Yuda Onsen, Yamaguchi City. Originally built as a Taisho-era villa and later expanded by renowned Kyoto sukiya master Fuefuki Kaichiro, the inn features the imperial Anzaikaku wing, three styles of Japanese garden, and 100% free-flowing natural hot springs from three private sources.

Sami Bridge in Hagi City, Yamaguchi Prefecture, is a single-arch stone bridge completed in 1914 during the Taisho era and registered as a National Tangible Cultural Property. Known locally as Megane-bashi (Spectacles Bridge), its 16.4-meter arch span makes it one of the largest stone bridges in Yamaguchi — a rare and precious artifact from the transitional era between stone and concrete construction.

Completed in 1926 as a naval fuel depot director's residence, this 36-square-metre Shunan wing keeps a coved coffered reception room behind a half-timbered gable.

This 238-square-metre wing of a 1926 naval residence in Shunan retains its ten-mat shoin rooms, carved transoms and a long veranda beam left as a round log.

Built in 1918 by Kyoto carpenters for a Hofu kimono merchant, this registered house shifts between tea-room informality and a formal 12.5-mat reception room.

Discover the Hagi Station Building, a nationally registered tangible cultural property built in 1925. This elegant half-timbered station in Yamaguchi Prefecture houses a museum honoring Inoue Masaru, the Father of Japanese Railways, and serves as a gateway to Hagi's World Heritage sites.

Discover the Hachiya Building, a registered tangible cultural property in Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi. Built in 1926 as the Toyo Whaling Company branch office, this Secessionist-style brick building overlooks the Kanmon Straits and now houses an acclaimed French restaurant.

The Momoyama Water Distribution Metering Room, known locally as 'Rokkakudō' (Hexagonal Hall), is a Gothic-style brick waterworks facility built in 1924 by the Okinoyama Coal Mine in Ube City, Yamaguchi Prefecture. This charming octagonal building is a Registered Tangible Cultural Property and Heritage of Industrial Modernization, offering panoramic views over Ube's cityscape and the Suō-nada Sea.

Registered in 2024, the 1921 banquet hall of Ryotei Takadai in Hagi opens to about one hundred tatami mats with no pillar, spanned by a hidden Western truss.

Late Taisho work registered in 2024, the entrance of Ryotei Takadai in Hagi carries a carved strut above its beam, and a tatami corridor runs on to the banquet hall.