Edo

An early Edo-period Buddhist pagoda in Kashihara, Nara Prefecture, Japan. It stands on the great foundations there that are some 1000 years older still.

The Tamaya main house, a late Edo inn before the gate of Taimadera in Katsuragi, Nara, has a festive air with lattices, a pine-and-crane relief and carved jewels.

The guardian shrine of Nakanobo at Taimadera, Katsuragi, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Just 1.4 square metres, it has two kinds of gable and colour over the whole.

Forty-one landscape panels by Sakaki Hyakusen, a pioneer of Japan's Nanga school, painted in 1751 near Nara and now on deposit at the Nara National Museum.

An Important Cultural Property by Ogata Kenzan: a half-cylinder tea bowl with an iron-brown waterfall on one side and a poem on the other, both from his own brush.

A National Important Cultural Property held privately in Nara Prefecture, this set of six color-on-paper fusuma panels was painted in 1751 by Sakaki Hyakusen (1697–1752), one of the four founding figures of Japanese Nanga literati painting, just one year before his death. Depicting Mount Tiantai's legendary stone bridge and its abode of five hundred arhats, the work is part of the 41-panel cycle known as the Former Jimon-in Wall Paintings — the largest surviving program of architectural painting by Hyakusen and a milestone in the adaptation of Chinese Southern School painting to Japanese fusuma format.

A herdboy rides his ox home through falling snow in Li Di's Returning Herd in Snow, a Southern Song National Treasure kept at Nara's Yamato Bunkakan museum.

The Matsura Screens, a National Treasure pair of gold-leaf screens, show 18 life-size Edo courtesans. See the 22 kimono and rosary at Nara's Yamato Bunkakan.

Rebuilt in 1664 by shogun Tokugawa Ietsuna, the Omiwa Shrine Worship Hall is where visitors pray toward Mount Miwa, as the shrine itself has no main sanctuary.

The shoin of Okadera in Asuka, Nara, a study hall of 1644 with four rooms in an L-shape and a kitchen once inside, is among the few shoin with Momoyama roots.

Kashihara Jingu's Main Hall began as a Kyoto Imperial Palace sanctuary of 1855, moved here in 1890. On its bracketless detailing and what visitors can actually see.

The Kikuya Family Residence in Tsukigase, Nara, is a small thatched farmhouse built around 1700, preserving a three-room plan once common across the Kinai region.

Dated to the Kanbun era and designated in 1973, this cypress-bark hall at Konbu-in convent in Nara follows a Zen abbot's-quarters plan and holds Edo-period panels.

The Saionin Agetsuchimon Gate, early Edo, opens off the approach to Horyuji's Middle Gate beside the Karamon. What an earth-topped gate is, and why this has bark.

Head temple of the Shingon Risshū sect, rebuilt 1798–1808 with all-timber plank walls — a rare construction earning Important Cultural Property status in 1998.

A Jodo sub-temple at the west end of Taimadera, Nara: its Main Hall of 1604, Hojo of 1612 and Bell Tower Gate of 1647 became Important Cultural Properties in 1989.

Built in 1804 on Mount Tamaki in Nara, this Important Cultural Property holds Kano-school painted rooms above a basement retreat once used by mountain ascetics.

Tanzan Shrine's 13 buildings in Sakurai, Nara, designated in 1977, include a polychrome main hall of 1850 and two earlier main halls that still stand for comparison.

Todaiji's Corridor, two Edo-period ranges built 1716-1737 that run 41 bays from the Middle Gate to frame the Great Buddha Hall: its form, designation and access.

The Great Buddha Hall of Todaiji, consecrated in 1709: why its front shrank from 11 bays to 7, the composite pillars and karahafu gable, plus hours, fees and photos.