Edo

The Miya Goten at Daishoji Temple, a nationally registered tangible cultural property, is a palatial hall built in the imperial style to welcome a princess of Emperor Kōkaku into this highest-ranking Buddhist convent near the Kyoto Imperial Palace. Featuring elegant Edo-period architecture with irimoya and sukiya-style wings, fusuma paintings, a designated scenic karesansui garden, and an exceptional collection of imperial dolls, it preserves over five centuries of ama-monzeki culture where imperial women practiced Buddhism while maintaining courtly arts.

The Main House of the Nakano Family Residence in Nagaokakyo, Kyoto, is a late Edo dwelling registered in 2010. It now serves meals and coffee as Nakanotei.

The Storehouse of the Nakano Family Residence in Nagaokakyo, Kyoto, is a late Edo earthen-walled dozo of just 25 square metres, registered nationally in 2010.

The Kyoto home of the Nakamura family, lacquerers to the Sen tea schools, dates from 1854 and was built by a sukiya master carpenter. Registered 2003; closed.

The late Edo northwest storehouse of the Hori Family Residence in Joyo, Kyoto runs 9.9 metres on a cut-stone base, its plastered street wall boarded below.

The 1859 main house of the Hori Family Residence in Joyo, Kyoto keeps an upper-tier farmhouse plan: an earth-floored west half, six rooms east, a formal entry step.

The late Edo long gatehouse of the Hori Family Residence in Joyo, Kyoto has a room with a projecting lattice window, board doors and a small wicket beside them.

A 20-metre timber wall in Kumiyama, Kyoto, registered in 2010. Sharing a cut-stone base with the gate, it holds the street frontage of an Edo headman's compound.

A late Edo gatehouse in Kumiyama, Kyoto, registered in 2010. Its 27-metre plastered front, barred windows and crest tiles mark the rank of a village headman.

This northwest storehouse at the Yamanaka oil shop in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto dates from the 1820s and was registered in 2007. Earthen walls guarded a flammable stock.

Registered in 2007, this late Edo townhouse in Kamigyo Ward, Kyoto keeps its folding display bench and plaster-barred attic windows, and still trades as an oil shop.

Rakushisha is a thatched-roof hermitage in the Sagano district of Kyoto, originally the retreat of Mukai Kyorai, a leading disciple of the great haiku master Matsuo Basho. Designated as a nationally Registered Tangible Cultural Property, this humble cottage is celebrated as the place where Basho composed his masterpiece Saga Nikki and is counted among Japan's Three Great Haikai Training Halls.

Yuan Chan master Yunfeng Miaogao's 1284 colophon on a calligraphy by his dharma ancestor Dahui Zonggao. An Important Cultural Property at Kyoto's Kitamura Museum.

Discover the National Treasure bokuseki calligraphy by Chinese Chan master Xutang Zhiyu, preserved at Daitoku-ji temple in Kyoto. Learn about its Zen heritage, tea ceremony significance, and how to view this masterpiece.

Discover the National Treasure bokuseki by Yuan-dynasty Zen master Gulin Qingmao, bestowed upon his Japanese disciple Getsurin Dōkō in 1327. Now deposited at Kyoto National Museum, this masterpiece of Zen calligraphy embodies centuries of cross-cultural spiritual exchange between China and Japan.

Discover the Important Cultural Property "Dōto" — two powerful characters by Chinese Chan monk Gekkan Bunmei, housed at Shōkoku-ji's Jōtenkaku Museum in Kyoto. Learn about bokuseki (Zen calligraphy), its meaning, and how to visit.

A National Treasure of Shōjōke-in, Kyoto: a Southern Song Amida triad in three signed scrolls by the Ningbo painter Fuetsu, now held at the Kyoto National Museum.

Ninna-ji's National Treasure Kujaku Myōō, a Song-dynasty Chinese painting, shows the Peacock Wisdom King with three faces and six arms on a white peacock.

Two Southern Song scrolls at Kyoto's Konchi-in, the Autumn and Winter Landscapes are a National Treasure once owned by the Ashikaga shoguns and ascribed to Huizong.

Discover Kenpon Bokuga Sansuizu, a National Treasure ink landscape painting attributed to the great Song Dynasty master Li Tang, housed at Koto-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji in Kyoto. Learn about its artistic significance, history with the Hosokawa samurai clan, and how to plan your visit.