National Treasures of Kyoto

Discover Tawaraya Sōtatsu's masterpiece of Japanese ink painting, "Lotus Pond and Waterfowl" (Renchi Suikin-zu), held by the Kyoto National Museum. This National Treasure hanging scroll, painted in the early Edo period in ink alone, quietly sets two lotus stems and two little grebes in dialogue to evoke the passage of a summer. This guide introduces the painting's artistic value, the reasons for its designation, its highlights, and the surrounding sights of Kyoto's Higashiyama district.

Sesshu's View of Amanohashidate, a National Treasure in Kyoto, maps the famed sandbar from a sky-high viewpoint that never existed. An unsigned sketch turned icon.

The National Treasure Yamai no Sōshi paints twelfth-century illness with rare candour, watching the sick and the onlookers who laugh, stare, or look away.

At the Kyoto National Museum, the National Treasure Gaki Zoshi pictures hungry ghosts unseen by the living, its seven scenes moving from torment to salvation.

Faceless courtiers fill the picture hidden beneath the sutra text. This National Treasure at the Kyoto National Museum was copied over an abandoned scroll in 1192.