Heian

An eight-lobed Heian-period mirror in Nara Prefecture. Nine Buddhist figures stand engraved upon its face, while flowers and birds cover all the back.

A Heian-period handscroll in Nara owned by a listed company. The company owns the scroll itself while a museum that it runs is the place that keeps it.

Discover the National Treasure 'Silk-Painted Image of the Eleven-Headed Kannon' at Nara National Museum — a 12th-century Heian-period masterpiece on silk. As one of Japan's oldest surviving silk paintings of this form of Kannon, it features an unusually naturalistic three-quarter pose, exquisite cut-gold-leaf (kirikane) decoration, and motifs newly introduced from Song-dynasty China. This guide covers the painting's iconography, history, and how to plan your visit to the museum in Nara Park.

Discover the Lotus Arabesque Maki-e Sutra Box, a National Treasure from the late Heian period housed at Nara National Museum. Crafted in the exceptionally rare lacquered-leather (shippi) technique and adorned with togidashi maki-e, this elegant container once preserved decorated sutras at Jingū-ji in Fukui.

A single handscroll recording a waka poetry contest at the court of Emperor Daigo, hosted by a consort, preserving the verses and verdicts of a Heian gathering.

The Kachomon Kei is a Heian bronze ritual gong from Nara, decorated with flowers and birds and struck during Buddhist services as a signal. Designated in 1953.

A twelfth-century Heian lacquer box for a court cap, worked in hyomon with silver and gold set flush into black lacquer. A Kasuga Taisha treasure that lost its lid.

Four scrolls of the Kunoji Sutra, a decorated Lotus Sutra copied by the circle of Retired Emperor Toba, a National Treasure since 2017 and the oldest such set.

A National Treasure of Japan, the Ichiji Rendai Hokekyō (Fugen Kanpotsuhon) is a dazzling late Heian decorated sutra in which each written character is enthroned on a painted lotus pedestal and encircled by a golden halo. The gold- and silver-strewn paper and the yamato-e frontispiece depicting a Heian memorial rite make it one of Japan's finest sōshokukyō. It is preserved at the Museum Yamato Bunkakan in Nara.

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.

Housed at the Nara National Museum, the Gyūhi Keman are a set of thirteen fan-shaped Buddhist pendant garlands of ox-hide, cut in openwork and painted on both faces with kalavinka and hōsōge arabesques. Originally preserved at Tō-ji Temple in Kyoto, they date to the 11th century and are the oldest surviving leather keman of this form in Japan.

An early Heian three-storied pagoda at Taimadera, Nara, a National Treasure since 1952: 24.1 m tall, eight spire rings, and 7th-century reliquaries found in 2017.

The Mandala Hall of Taimadera in Nara, dated 1161 by a ridge-beam inscription and a National Treasure since 1952: a seven-bay hall wrapped around an older sanctuary.

Todaiji's Kanjinsho Sutra Repository, an early Heian azekura inside the compound Kōkei used to run the Edo rebuilding, and the 5 October day when the compound opens.

Todaiji's Hokkedo Sutra Repository, an early Heian azekura three bays square beside the Hokkedo: how it is built, how it compares with Todaiji's other log stores.

The Former Fukiji Temple Rakando, a tiny Heian hall from Kawanishi, was dismantled in 1935, chemically conserved and rebuilt at Horyuji. Its history and what to see.

Butsuryuji Sekishitsu is a stone chamber with a pyramidal roof behind the main hall in Uda City. The gorinto inside is held to mark the grave of the founder Kene.

The Horyuji Temple Kofuzo Treasury, a Heian National Treasure, keeps two storerooms under one roof with an open bay between, the original twin-storehouse form.

The Horyuji Temple Bell Tower, a mid-Heian National Treasure rebuilt after 925, is the only Heian two-level belfry left. How it differs from the repository opposite.

The Horyuji Temple Great Lecture Hall, a National Treasure rebuilt in 990 after a fire in 925, grew from 8 bays to 9. See its hidden roof frame and Yakushi Triad.