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.
The tachi signed Moriie at Kishu Toshogu, a finest work of this Bizen smith, descended through the Kii Tokugawa and is an Important Cultural Property.
Held by Kishu Toshogu, the tachi signed Yasutsuna is among Japan's oldest signed blades. Forged in Heian-period Hoki, it is an Important Cultural Property.
An Important Cultural Property at Kishū Tōshōgū: a slender 72-centimeter tachi by the late-Kamakura Kyoto master Rai Kunitoshi, with a calm straight temper line.
A Kamakura short sword signed Kunimitsu, held by Kongobu-ji on Koyasan and designated in 1913. By tradition its maker is Shintogo Kunimitsu, founder of Soshu work.
A Kamakura short sword signed Rai Kunimitsu at Hirohachiman Shrine in Hirogawa, town of the rice-sheaf tsunami legend. A Kyoto Rai-school work designated in 1950.
A Heian handscroll at Ryuko-in on Koyasan: an annotated Sutra for Humane Kings, a state-protection scripture, designated an Important Cultural Property in 1930.
An iron kettle at Kumano Hongu Taisha cast with the date 1198, used in the yudate rite. It is among Japan's oldest dated kettles, from the early Kamakura era.
A bronze five-pronged vajra bell at Shochi-in on Koyasan, made in Tang China and designated in 1928. An esoteric Buddhist implement, paired with a vajra in ritual.
A Muromachi bronze bell at Kongobuji on Mount Koya, cast on the Buddha's birthday in 1504 and re-inscribed in 1572. An Important Cultural Property at the Reihokan.
A Kamakura bronze bell owned by Kongobuji on Mount Koya, with a cast inscription dating it to 1280. A securely dated example shown by rotation at the Reihokan.
A 1210 bronze bell at Kongo Sanmaiin, Mount Koya, ringed with deity names and nine Sanskrit mantras. A rare Important Cultural Property, unrung in its gate-tower.
A burial assemblage placing a lay devotee's bones near Kūkai's mausoleum at Okunoin in 1287, with a gilt-bronze pagoda and a cast bronze triad found in the earth.
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.