Important cultural property
重 要 文 化 財 一 覧Explore Japan’s Important Cultural Properties in one searchable list. Filter by prefecture, period, and category, read concise stories, and plan visits with maps and travel tips.
Held by Hōju-in on Mount Kōya, this upper volume of the Nihon Hokke Genki is a 1153 copy of a Heian collection of Buddhist miracle tales about the Lotus Sutra.
Four Nō costumes from a shrine below Mount Kōya: two embroidered hunting robes, a chōken and a happi, recorded in a 1610 diary, exceptionally rare Momoyama work.
A Kamakura manuscript with part of volume three of the Tang poet Bai Juyi's collected works, held at Sanbō-in on Mount Kōya, a witness to its transmission in Japan.
A Kamakura worship dais from the Fudō-dō on Mount Kōya, the low seat where a priest knelt to officiate, part of one original set with the flower-form altar.
A Kamakura ritual altar made for the Fudō-dō, oldest hall on Mount Kōya. Built in two parts on a square base, it once held the implements of esoteric Shingon rites.
Dated to 1312, the Hanagata Daidan is a Kamakura-period esoteric altar at Kongōbu-ji on Mount Kōya, its lotus-petal form a stage for the implements of a rite.
Legend says Kūkai threw this vajra from China and found it caught in a Kōyasan pine. Trace the Heian implement at the heart of the mountain's founding legend.
Two Kamakura tachi with chain straps, by tradition offered during the Mongol invasions. Held by the shrine of Kōyasan's guardians, now at the Tokyo National Museum.
A Heian manuscript of Kūkai's Bunkyō Hifuron, his anthology of Chinese poetic theory, sits at Mount Kōya's Sanbō-in and preserves Tang texts now lost in China.
A Nara-period scroll copied in 743 under Empress Kōmyō's patronage, preserving volume nine of an early Perfection of Wisdom sutra. Held at Ryūkō-in on Mt. Kōya.
Discover the Wooden Seated Amida Nyorai, a National Important Cultural Property preserved at Mount Koya (Koyasan) in Wakayama Prefecture. Originally enshrined as the principal image of the Daikaidō (Great Assembly Hall) — a memorial hall founded in 1175 by Princess Shōshi (Itsutsuji Saiin) for her father, Retired Emperor Toba — this serene seated Buddha is now safeguarded at the Koyasan Reihōkan Treasure Museum and shown periodically in special exhibitions. Explore the meeting point of imperial Pure Land devotion and esoteric Shingon spirituality at one of Japan's most sacred mountains.
An early Heian Diamond World Dainichi Nyorai thought to be the original icon of Kōyasan's West Pagoda, and among the oldest Buddhist sculptures on the mountain.
A Diamond World Dainichi bearing an ink inscription dated 1062, this single-block hinoki figure shows the calm, broad style of provincial Heian workshops in Kii.
A Womb World Dainichi in meditation pose, this early Kamakura figure carries the taut, youthful manner of the Kei school, now kept by the Pure Land temple Jōkyō-ji.
A Kamakura-period Dainichi Nyorai in the main hall of Sainan-in, a Mount Kōya sub-temple guarding the southwestern gate and famed for its Shigemori rock garden.
A Heian-period Dainichi Nyorai at Shakamon-in, a Kōyasan lodging by the Danjō Garan. Its 1908 listing is the earliest among the mountain's Dainichi images.
A colossal jōroku triad at Negoro-ji: a Diamond World Dainichi flanked by Kongōsatta and Sonshō Butchō, the only surviving example of a composition devised by Kakuban.
A Kamakura-period wooden Tamonten at Henjoko-in on Mount Koya, an armored guardian of the north holding a pagoda and halberd above a subdued demon underfoot.
Two Muromachi portable shrines at World Heritage Niutsuhime Jinja, with phoenix roofs and black-lacquered bodies in gold brocade, used in the medieval Hamaori rite.
A Heian-period Tobatsu Bishamonten at Ryuko-in on Mount Koya, standing on the palms of the earth goddess in Central Asian armor, after the famous To-ji prototype.