Important Cultural Property of Chiba

Hokekyo-ji in Ichikawa, Chiba, holds over a hundred letters and treatises in the hand of the monk Nichiren, a rare survival named an Important Cultural Property.

A 20.3 cm bronze ritual handbell, probably early Heian, owned by Enpukuji in Choshi, Chiba: a rare forerunner of the vajra bell, kept at the Nara National Museum.

A Kamakura white-bronze mirror, 20.5 cm across, from Tamasaki Shrine in Chiba, cast with an old plum, two sparrows and pampas grass; once hung before the altar.

A 1321 bronze bell cast for a temple in Shimotsuke, moved to Kamakura's Jomyoji and then to Nihonji on Mount Nokogiri, Chiba; now kept inside the Dharma Hall.

A 1286 bronze bell by the Kamakura founder Mononobe no Kunimitsu at Koamiji in Tateyama, Chiba, cast with a Sanskrit dharani; it hangs in the temple's bell tower.

Chiba's oldest dated temple bell, cast in 1264 by Hiroshina Shigenaga for Ganzoji in Nagara: a rare bell without bosses, bearing Womb Realm seed syllables.

A 1278 bell by Onakatomi Kanemori, moved from Daifukuji to Hondoji in Matsudo, Chiba, in 1482, when its seed syllables were replaced with Nichiren's lineage.

Letters, diaries and effects of Meiji statesman Okubo Toshimichi, 3,053 items at the National Museum of Japanese History, an Important Cultural Property since 2004.