Important cultural property

An Important Cultural Property in Nara, this Kamakura-period mandala on silk anchored the secret Ichiji Kinrin rite. Privately held, it is not on public display.

A twelfth-century Heian lacquer box for a court cap, worked in hyomon with silver and gold set flush into black lacquer. A Kasuga Taisha treasure that lost its lid.

An Important Cultural Property by Ogata Kenzan: a half-cylinder tea bowl with an iron-brown waterfall on one side and a poem on the other, both from his own brush.

The Sanzon Senbutsu is a fired-clay plaque of a seated Buddha and two standing attendants, designated in 1901 among the earliest protected objects in Japan.

An Important Cultural Property tachi forged in 1319 by Kyoto's Rai Kunitoshi, its slender form and quiet straight temper marking the smith's late style.

Kept above ground rather than buried, the two iron shields of Isonokami Jingu in Nara are rare, near-complete Kofun-period pieces and an Important Cultural Property.

The Tennin-mon Sen from Asuka's Okadera is a square clay tile carved with a celestial being lifting a scarf, a rare survival now held at the Kyoto National Museum.

The Wooden Ichiman-setsutō with lotus base at Hōryū-ji in Ikaruga, Nara, is a unique seven-tiered miniature pagoda created in the 8th century as a special marker for every 10,000 of the one million pagodas commissioned by Empress Shōtoku. Designated an Important Cultural Property and the only surviving example in the world, it stands at the origin of printed dharani, among the world's oldest dated printed materials. It is preserved in the Daihōzōin treasure hall at Hōryū-ji, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Preserved at Hōryū-ji in Ikaruga, Nara, the Wooden Jūmanzettō (with Remnant Lotus Pedestal) is the sole known surviving example of the thirteen-storied pagodas crowning Empress Shōtoku's eighth-century million-pagoda project. Originally one of just ten distributed to ten major temples after the Fujiwara no Nakamaro Rebellion, it embodies the imperial vow for state protection and the era that produced some of the world's oldest dated printed materials.

Held in the Daihōzōin of Hōryū-ji in Ikaruga, Nara, the Wooden Million Small Pagodas were commissioned by Empress Shōtoku in the 8th century after the Emi no Oshikatsu Rebellion. Each palm-sized three-tiered pagoda contains a printed dharani scroll regarded as the world's oldest dated printed text. Designated an Important Cultural Property, they are a remarkable testament to Nara-period devotion and the dawn of printing in Japan.

A National Important Cultural Property held privately in Nara Prefecture, this set of six color-on-paper fusuma panels was painted in 1751 by Sakaki Hyakusen (1697–1752), one of the four founding figures of Japanese Nanga literati painting, just one year before his death. Depicting Mount Tiantai's legendary stone bridge and its abode of five hundred arhats, the work is part of the 41-panel cycle known as the Former Jimon-in Wall Paintings — the largest surviving program of architectural painting by Hyakusen and a milestone in the adaptation of Chinese Southern School painting to Japanese fusuma format.

An Important Cultural Property held privately in Nara Prefecture, the four-scroll Shihon Chakushoku Ippen Shōnin Emaki depicts the life of Ippen Shōnin (1239–1289), founder of the Ji-shū sect. As a transcribed copy of the Sōshun-bon tradition, it preserves the spirit of Kamakura-period yamato-e painting and Japan's medieval Pure Land devotion.

A remarkable assemblage of late Paleolithic stone tools discovered in the Naruka Sanka district of Eiheiji Town, Fukui Prefecture, during the late Edo period. Comprising one pointed stone tool, twenty-two tanged points, and two stone cores found in a carefully arranged deposit, this unique collection was designated an Important Cultural Property in 1997.

The Dai Hannya Kyō at Wakasa-hiko Shrine in Obama City, Fukui Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property — a remarkably rare complete set of 600 hand-copied sutra scrolls from the early Heian period. Written on brown hemp paper by skilled copyists, this extraordinary collection has been preserved for over a millennium within the syncretic Shinto-Buddhist tradition.

Discover the Gojō Family Documents, an Important Cultural Property in Yame, Fukuoka. This collection of 369 documents across 17 scrolls preserves imperial letters from the Southern Court era, offering a rare window into Japan's dramatic Nanbokuchō period.

Held at the Kyushu National Museum, this Nara-period ledger records paper and other supplies issued to an office copying the Buddhist canon in 772-773.

From an 1888 Yamaguchi tomb, this set holds a bronze mirror with the Wei reign name Zhengshi (240 CE), long central to the debate over Queen Himiko's gift mirrors.

The Iino Family Documents, 1,683 papers from the priests of Iino Hachimangu in Iwaki, Fukushima, begin in 1204; 210 medieval pieces record estate rule.

At Nyoho-ji in Koriyama, Fukushima, this stone slab stupa of 1276 is the best-preserved itabi memorial in Tohoku, an Amida-centered Important Cultural Property.

Discover the Iwashiro Yoneyama-ji Sutra Mound Excavated Items, a nationally designated Important Cultural Property housed at the Sukagawa City Museum in Fukushima Prefecture. This assemblage — including an inscribed ceramic outer container dated 1171, a bronze sutra cylinder, a small knife, a bronze mirror, a sword guard, and iron arrowheads — offers a vivid window onto late Heian-period sutra-mound beliefs rooted in mappō thought and devotion to the future Buddha Maitreya.