‘Nihon-shumi’ architecture is recognized as a figurative architectural style of Japanese modern architecture representing Japanese identity through historicizing elements of Japanese temples, shrines or castles. This paper analyzes a transition of ‘Nihon-shumi’ design in the 1930s dealing with the 1937 Kenkoku Kinen Kaikan Competition for a main venue of 1940 World Exposition. In the competition, there were 2 major types of Nihon-shumi designs; one had narrow eaves on flat walls, which was a typicalexpression of Nihon shumi, and another had exaggerated Japanese traditional motifsout of wooden buildings like deep eaves, pillars of a cloister or Azekura wall.
