National Treasure
国 宝 一 覧Browse Japan’s National Treasures by prefecture, period, and type. Clear stories highlight what to look for at temples, shrines, castles, and museums—plus maps and travel tips.
Copied by the Heian monk Shunyu at Ishiyama-dera, these scrolls are said to carry a fragrance from Kukai's robe. An 83-scroll National Treasure, shown only rarely.
A fragment of a household register from 908 for a district in present-day Yamaguchi, it survived because a Buddhist text was later copied on its reverse.
On Lake Biwa's north shore, Sugaura's villagers kept 1,281 documents recording their medieval self-rule and land disputes. They became a National Treasure in 2018.
Kept at Taiheiji in mountainous Shiga, these 142 volumes are the oldest dated copy of the Great Wisdom Sutra in Japan, brushed in 712 at the wish of Prince Nagaya.
Twenty-seven sutra volumes kept at Jomyoji Temple in Koka, Shiga, copied in 712 for Prince Nagaya: Japan's oldest dated Daihannya-kyo, a National Treasure.
A National Treasure at Onjo-ji in Otsu, these ninth-century documents tied to the monk Enchin include two Tang travel passes, the world's only surviving originals.
Saichō's 805 handscroll at Enryaku-ji lists the texts he carried home from Tang China. Partly in his own hand, it bears a Tang prefect's colophon and seals.
Held at Enryaku-ji, this National Treasure is a single scroll of two Tang government permits issued to the monk Saichō in 804 and 805. Part is in his own hand.
Six documents in Saichō's own hand, this National Treasure scroll at Enryaku-ji traces how Tendai won state recognition and its own ordination platform on Mt. Hiei.
A decorated Heian copy of the Lotus Sutra's first chapter, named for Chikubushima island where it was long kept, with birds and flowers in gold and silver.
A National Treasure Eleven-Headed Kannon at Kogen-ji in Shiga, carved from one cypress block in the early Heian period and known for the laughing face at its back.
At Shiga's Mii-dera, a National Treasure portrays Shinra Myojin, a guardian deity said to have appeared to the monk Enchin at sea. Carved in cypress, rarely shown.
A tenth-century National Treasure at Onjō-ji in Ōtsu, Shiga: the seated portrait of Chishō Daishi, the Naka-son Daishi, a secret image opened only on 29 October.
At Onjo-ji in Otsu, this older of two National Treasure portraits of the monk Enchin is said to hold his cremated remains. A concealed image, it is rarely opened.
A National Treasure at Onjo-ji near Lake Biwa, this Tang handscroll in ink line maps the deities of the Diamond World mandala, brought from China by Enchin in 855.
A National Treasure of early Edo Japan: fifteen figures in a Kyoto pleasure quarter, the classical kinki shoga theme recast as shamisen, sugoroku, and love letters.
A Kamakura sword by the Bizen smith Kunimune, owned by Terukuni Shrine in Kagoshima, a National Treasure since 1964, returned from America in 1963.
Held at Kenchoji, this 1271 portrait of Lanxi Daolong is Japan's oldest dated Zen-master portrait. The monk inscribed it himself, and his eyes are ringed in gold.
Explore the silk portrait of Hojo Sanetoki at Shomyo-ji, Yokohama — a rarely-shown National Treasure depicting the Kamakura samurai-scholar who founded Kanazawa Bunko, Japan's oldest samurai library.
Five Kamakura-period silk court robes and lacquered arms, kept together at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. Complete court dress of that age survives almost nowhere else.