Registered Works of Fine Arts and Crafts of Japan

Painted in the summer of 1858 by a seventeen-year-old Claude Monet, View from Rouelles is the earliest known oil painting by the father of Impressionism and the first work he ever submitted to a public exhibition. On deposit from the Marunuma Art Park collection, this small but pivotal landscape is exhibited periodically at the Museum of Modern Art, Saitama, a masterwork by architect Kisho Kurokawa. Just 35 minutes from Tokyo and a three-minute walk from Kita-Urawa Station, the museum offers a rare opportunity to stand before the very origin of Monet's journey.

The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama holds a rare late masterpiece by French Romantic master Eugène Delacroix: 'The Disciples Lifting the Body of Saint Stephen,' painted in 1860 and registered as a Japanese cultural property in 2000. Discover the painting's dramatic use of color, its spiritual depth, and how to plan your visit to this surprising cultural destination just outside Tokyo.

Held by the Chiba City Museum of Art, this National Important Cultural Property by Tanomura Chikuden — painted in Osaka in 1829 when he was 53 — is a luminous example of late Edo-period literati painting. Its poetic contrast between a storm-tossed boat and a calm interior, together with the artist's own dated inscription, make it one of the finest benchmark works of Japanese bunjinga.

Held at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, this 1953 hanging scroll by Yasuda Yukihiko (1884–1978) depicts Konohana-no-Sakuyabime—the goddess of Mount Fuji and cherry blossoms from the Kojiki and Nihon Shoki. Designated a Registered Work of Art in 2019, it is recognized as one of the artist's representative masterworks of modern Nihonga.

Discover the Celadon Ewer with Peony Design at Tokyo National Museum — a 15th-century Longquan ware masterpiece from Ming-dynasty China, beloved in Japan as classic Tenryu-ji celadon and designated an Important Art Object.

Discover the Seto Mimitsuki Mizusashi, a Registered Art Object held at Tokyo National Museum. This Edo-period (late 17th to 18th century) water jar, made at the historic Seto kiln, features a cylindrical body with charming bamboo-shaped handles, an iron glaze layered with poured ash glaze, and a black lacquered wooden lid. Explore its quiet beauty, historical significance, viewing highlights, and visitor information for the museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo.

Discover the Tekagami (292 Leaves), a registered work of art at Tokyo National Museum. Compiled in 1861 by Edo Shogunate official painter Sumiyoshi Hirotsura, this rare album contains 292 fragments of Japan's finest ancient calligraphy spanning a thousand years from Nara to Edo periods.

A pair of six-panel folding screens by Shōkadō Shōjō, one of the Three Great Calligraphers of the Kan'ei Era, featuring delicate four-seasons flower-and-bird paintings interwoven with sixteen scattered waka poems on a shimmering gold-and-silver ground.

The Tani family's 7,877 coins, gathered by Nobeoka merchants, survive at the Kyushu National Museum as Registered Art Object No. 67, from gold ōban to copper cash.

101 objects, 19 Noh masks, 80 costumes, and 2 instruments, handed down in a Hyuga merchant family and now a Registered Art Object at the Kyushu National Museum.