National Treasures of Fukui

Rising 22 meters above a forested mountain valley in Obama City, Fukui, the Three-Storied Pagoda of Myōtsū-ji was completed in 1270 during the mid-Kamakura period. As one of only two structures designated National Treasures in all of Fukui Prefecture, this hinoki-bark-roofed pagoda is celebrated as the earliest example of a Japanese pagoda incorporating the 'kobushi-bana' ornamentation of the imported daibutsuyō style — a transitional masterpiece set in primeval mountain stillness.

Hidden in a deep mountain valley in Obama City, Fukui Prefecture, the Myotsuji Main Hall is a thirteenth-century cypress-bark-roofed Buddhist hall and the only National Treasure architecture in Fukui Prefecture. Reconstructed in 1258, it elegantly fuses traditional Japanese styling with newer continental building techniques, and enshrines four Important Cultural Property statues including a serene Heian-period Medicine Buddha. Together with the equally celebrated three-story pagoda, it preserves a sublime atmosphere of medieval esoteric Buddhism deep in the forests of Wakasa.

At Eiheiji lies Dōgen's own 1233 manuscript of the Fukan Zazengi, his founding guide to Zen sitting and the only surviving autograph of this National Treasure.