Important cultural property

Preserved at Shokoku-ji in Kyoto, this Important Cultural Property is a hexagonal cast bronze hanging lantern with an inscription dated to Tenbun 21 (1552). Its fire chamber, pierced with openwork sprays of plum and bamboo, draws on the East Asian tradition of the Three Friends of Winter and embodies the refined craftsmanship of late Muromachi metalwork. Encountered during themed exhibitions at the Jōtenkaku Museum, it offers a quiet, luminous window onto Zen visual culture.

Discover Choshuki, an Important Cultural Property held by Reizei-ke Shiguretei Bunko in Kyoto. These four scrolls—the diary of Heian aristocrat Minamoto no Moromitsu, copied around 1221 by the celebrated poet Fujiwara no Teika—capture rituals, imperial pilgrimages and politics at the dawn of the insei era.

The Ninna-ji Kuronuri-tebako Shōgyō is an Important Cultural Property comprising scrolls, codices, and folded books of esoteric Buddhist texts stored in black-lacquered boxes. These documents preserve the rituals of Ninna-ji's imperial Shingon lineage in vivid, irreplaceable detail.

The forty bronze mirrors excavated from the Mitarashi Pond at Mt. Haguro, an Important Cultural Property held at Kyoto's Hosomi Museum, were once cast as votive offerings into a sacred mountaintop pond in Yamagata. Mostly late Heian-period wakyō with lyrical bird and plant motifs, they embody Japan's distinctive water-spirit worship and the refined courtly aesthetic of the twelfth century.

Preserved at Tenkyū-in, a sub-temple of Kyoto's great Myōshin-ji, the Lotus Sutra Dhāraṇī Chapter brushed in 1325 by Madenokōji Nobufusa—court noble of Emperor Go-Daigo and one of the celebrated 'Three Bō of the Later Age'—is a designated Important Cultural Property. Written just after Nobufusa returned from his daring diplomatic mission to Kamakura, the scroll bridges medieval Japanese calligraphy, devotional Buddhism, and the politics of the late Kamakura court.

Discover the five Wooden Standing Goho-jin Statues of Raigo-in, a Sennyu-ji sub-temple in Higashiyama Kyoto. These Important Cultural Property guardian deities flank what is said to be Japan's oldest Sanbo Kojin image, a deity long venerated by the imperial family for safe childbirth, and are now entrusted to the Kyoto National Museum.

Discover the Important Cultural Property "Hotei-zu" (Painting of Hotei) by Kano Masanobu, founder of the renowned Kano school, with a poetic inscription by Zen monk Keijo Shūrin. Learn about this exquisite Muromachi-period ink painting owned by Japan's Agency for Cultural Affairs in Kyoto.

Designated a National Important Cultural Property, this collection from the late fifth-century Butai No. 1 Tumulus in Maebashi—including house-shaped haniwa, hundreds of talc miniatures, and rare clay food-offering vessels—vividly evokes a Kofun-period funerary ritual. The items, owned by the State, are on view at the Gunma Prefectural Museum of History in Takasaki.

Discover the Important Cultural Property artifacts from Ama-Miyayama Kofun in Takatsuki, Osaka—including five bronze mirrors, one bearing the oldest dated inscription found in Japan (235 AD), possibly among the legendary "100 mirrors" gifted by Wei China to Queen Himiko of Yamatai.

Discover the Kumano Junisha Gongen Mishōtai, an Important Cultural Property featuring thirteen Buddhist deities on a gilded bronze mirror disc. Explore the beauty of Shinto-Buddhist syncretism at Nara National Museum.

A 31-cm Nabeshima porcelain dish at Kyushu National Museum. Red and white peonies rise from a Taihu rock in a ribbed bowl, made at Saga's secret kiln c. 1680-1700.

Held at the Kyushu National Museum, this Important Cultural Property is a Yuan-dynasty Chinese tea bowl from the 13th–14th century. A rare kiln effect at the boundary of its black and brown glazes produces a silvery 'rainbow' band that gave the bowl its name. Its provenance traces back to the shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa.

Discover the Ota Family Residence (Otake Jutaku), an Important Cultural Property in Taragi, Kumamoto. This late Edo-period thatched farmhouse showcases the unique L-shaped "kagiya" architecture of the Hitoyoshi-Kuma region and the legacy of 700 years of Sagara clan rule.

The Thirteen-Story Stone Pagoda in Yatsushiro City, Kumamoto Prefecture, is an early Kamakura-period stone multi-tiered pagoda dating to 1230. Designated a nationally Important Cultural Property in 1933, it features a rare inscription naming its patron and craftsmen, along with striking carvings of four-directional Buddhas and fierce demon faces.

Shōzen-in Kannon-dō in Mizukami Village, Kumamoto Prefecture, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1625. Known as the Cat Temple, it enchants visitors with its lavish lacquer and polychrome interior and a dramatic Sengoku-era legend of a vengeful cat spirit.

The Amida Hall of Shorenji Temple in Taragi, Kumamoto is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property founded in 1295 by the Sagara clan. As the largest thatched-roof Buddhist hall in Kumamoto Prefecture, it preserves the solemn architectural style of the Kamakura period and houses an equally important Amida triad. It is a constituent cultural property of the Hitoyoshi-Kuma Japan Heritage story.

Hasshoji Amida Hall in Yunomae, Kumamoto, is a three-bay Buddhist hall of the late 15th century. Inside stands a Zen-style zushi sheltering an Amida triad of 1490.

Japan's only surviving cabin from a daimyo's seagoing ceremonial barge, once used by the lords of Kumamoto, with lacquered ceilings of 171 painted panels.

The Kasa Sotōba in Ishihara, Shibukawa City, Gunma Prefecture, is a stone memorial tower erected in 1356 during the Nanbokuchō period. Carved from andesite and standing approximately 220 cm tall, it bears Sanskrit inscriptions of the Four Directional Buddhas and inscriptions linked to Ji-shū Buddhism, offering a rare glimpse into medieval devotional life. It was designated a nationally Important Cultural Property in 1953.

Discover the Chorakuji Hoto, a rare Kamakura-period stone pagoda inscribed with the year 1276, standing atop an ancient burial mound at Chorakuji Temple in Ota, Gunma. Explore the Tokugawa clan's ancestral temple and the surrounding Nitta-sho heritage sites.