Kofun

A Chinese calligraphy album in Kyoto Prefecture, the Thousand Character Classic written twice in two scripts. The Agency leaves the maker field blank.

Three Tang-dynasty scrolls at Kosanji in Kyoto Prefecture. The country field of the official record reads China here, and it does not read Japan at all.

Kofun-period finds at a museum in Saitama, listed together as one single lot. The gold-inscribed iron sword among them is a contemporary source of it.

A Tang-dynasty copy of a letter by Wang Xizhi, kept in Tokyo. Nothing at all in his own hand survives, and so the copy itself is now the treasure here.

Kofun-period finds in Nara Prefecture, listed as a single lot. The tomb itself is placed about 350 metres to the west of Horyuji, and not by any address.

Held privately in Kyoto, this Important Cultural Property is a stone Buddhist relief dated to Kaiyuan 12 (724 CE). One of the famed Baoqing Temple group that once adorned Empress Wu Zetian's Seven-Treasure Platform in Tang Chang'an, it represents the High Tang synthesis of Indian Gupta and Chinese sculptural traditions.

Housed at the Kyoto National Museum, these five 3rd-century bronze mirrors unearthed in 1921 from Akazuka Kofun in Usa City, Oita Prefecture, are designated Important Cultural Properties. Chiefly triangular-rimmed deity-and-beast mirrors, they share molds with mirrors from tumuli across Japan, offering rare evidence of the early Yamato polity's reach and illuminating the great Queen Himiko debate.

Discover the Henkei Hōkaku Kamon-kyō, an Important Cultural Property held by the Kyoto National Museum. Cast in bronze in early Kofun-period Japan around the 4th century, this remarkable wakyō mirror reinterprets the Chinese Han-dynasty TLV design, replacing the Four Divine Beasts with elegant whirl patterns. Its decorative band wrapping around onto the polished face is almost unique in East Asian bronze mirror history.

Preserved at the Kyoto National Museum, this manuscript carries the Benmeiron, or 'Discourse on Discriminating Fate,' from volume fifty-four of the Wen Xuan—the oldest surviving anthology of Chinese literature, compiled by Crown Prince Xiao Tong of the Liang dynasty. Reaching Japan by the Nara period and treasured by Heian-era aristocrats, manuscripts of the Wen Xuan reveal the deep cultural ties between Japan and continental East Asia. A meaningful destination for travelers drawn to classical Chinese thought, calligraphic beauty, and the literary world that shaped Japan's classical age.

The Yamashina Nishinoyama Kofun Excavated Artifacts, designated a National Treasure in 1953 and housed at the Kyoto University Museum, are an extraordinary collection of early Heian period grave goods. Featuring a gold-mounted great sword, a gold-and-silver twin-phoenix mirror, and stone belt ornaments befitting the highest court nobility, these artifacts are believed to have come from the tomb of Sakanoue no Tamuramaro — the legendary Sei-i Taishogun who pacified northern Japan and founded Kiyomizu-dera Temple.

The Otokuni Kofun Group is a remarkable cluster of 13 ancient burial mounds spanning Kyoto City, Mukō, Nagaokakyō, and Ōyamazaki, tracing 400 years of regional power from the 3rd to 7th century. As one of the few sites in Japan where chieftain tombs were continuously built across the entire Kofun period, it serves as a microcosm of ancient political dynamics. The largest mound, Egenoyama Kofun (128m long), yielded over 700 iron weapons and is now preserved as a public park.

A Tang-dynasty stole of Toji, Kyoto, said to have come to Kukai from his teacher Huiguo, a National Treasure since 1953.

Grave goods from the early Kofun Shibagahara Tomb in Joyo, with the only complete bronze bracelets of their kind and 187 jasper beads. Designated 1990.

A Tang manuscript of the Chinese dictionary Yupian at Kozanji, Kyoto, a National Treasure since 1952, lost in China and completed by the second half at Ishiyamadera.

A Tang seven-panel kesa of Toji, Kyoto, said to have come to Kukai from Huiguo, a National Treasure since 1953, woven with layered clouds in tsuzure-ori.

Discover the Chunqiu Jingzhuan Jijie Volume 2 Fragment, a rare Tang dynasty manuscript and National Treasure housed at the Yūrinkan Museum in Kyoto. Learn about its history, significance, and how to visit.

This National Treasure at the Kyoto National Museum is the oldest surviving copy of the Chinese classic Shishuo Xinyu, in seventh-century Tang regular script.

Discover the Dailōtan-kyō Volume 3, a National Treasure Buddhist sutra copied in 673 CE during the Tang Dynasty. Housed at Chion-in temple in Kyoto, this ancient cosmological scripture offers a rare glimpse into early Buddhist manuscript culture.

Tobatsu Bishamonten at Kyoto's To-ji, a Tang-dynasty National Treasure that once guarded Rashomon gate. The 189.4 cm figure stands on the palms of the earth goddess.

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.