National Treasure

At Kongoji Temple in Kawachinagano, Osaka, three towering wooden statues—Dainichi Nyorai, Fudo Myoo, and Gozanze Myoo—form a rare three-dimensional Sonsho Mandala. Crafted over some fifty years by Heian and Kamakura masters including Kaikei's disciple Gyokai, the trinity was elevated to National Treasure status in 2017.

Kanshinji's National Treasure Nyoirin Kannon, a six-armed ninth-century image with its original pigments intact, appears only on April 17 and 18 each year in Osaka.

Carved from a single torreya trunk in the late 9th century, the National Treasure Yakushi at Shishikutsuji, Osaka, survived the 1615 siege. Full visiting guide.

At Osaka's Shitennoji, five fan-shaped booklets layer Lotus Sutra calligraphy over lively scenes of Heian nobles and markets, the last of Heian fan painting.

This Kamakura-period portrait of Emperor Go-Toba, said to be painted before his 1221 exile and attributed to Fujiwara no Nobuzane, is held by Minase Jingu in Osaka.

Osaka's Fujita Museum holds a National Treasure scroll illustrating Murasaki Shikibu's 1008 court diary. See its moonlit boating scene and gold leaf pages.

Twelve scrolls over 190 meters long depict Xuanzang's 17-year journey to India. A Kamakura masterpiece once kept secret at Kofukuji, now at Osaka's Fujita Museum.

Held by the Fujita Museum in Osaka, the National Treasure Saimon Shingetsu-zu (Brushwood Gate and the New Moon) is the oldest surviving Japanese poem-painting scroll with a confirmed date, inscribed Ōei 12 (1405). Inspired by a couplet of the Tang poet Du Fu, it carries a preface by the Zen monk Gyokuen Bonpō and poems by eighteen monks of Nanzen-ji and other Five Mountains temples. This guide explores the work itself, its place at the origin of Muromachi ink painting, what to look for in the scroll, and how to plan a visit to the Fujita Museum.

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.

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.

Held by the Osaka Aoyama Historical Literature Museum in Kawanishi, Hyogo, the National Treasure Tosa Nikki is the manuscript copy made by Fujiwara no Tameie in 1236, who transcribed Ki no Tsurayuki's lost autograph 'without altering a single character.' The closest surviving witness to Japan's first kana diary, it preserves the tenth-century spelling and calligraphic forms of Tsurayuki's original — a literary treasure set in Kawanishi, the legendary birthplace of the Seiwa Genji clan.

The Fukiji Temple Great Hall in Bungotakada, Oita, a late Heian Amida hall and a National Treasure since 1952, is the oldest wooden building in Kyushu.

Sixty-one Buddhas carved into volcanic cliffs in Usuki, Oita, became Japan's first rock-cut National Treasures in 1995. Meet the restored Furuzono Dainichi.

Rebuilt in 1707 and made a National Treasure in 1953, Zenkoji Hondo runs fourteen bays deep against five wide. A pitch-dark passage circles beneath its altar.

The Daihoji Temple Three-Storey Pagoda in Aoki, Nagano, of 1333 and a National Treasure since 1953, is a pure Japanese-style pagoda called the look-back pagoda.

Nishina Shinmei Shrine in Omachi, Nagano, has a main hall and gate, a National Treasure since 1953, in the purest shinmei style, rebuilt every 20 years.

Found nearly whole in 1986, this mica-flecked Jomon figure was Japan's first prehistoric National Treasure. The original stands at a museum in Chino, Nagano.

A large Late Jomon clay figure from the Nakappara site in Chino, Nagano, named for its inverted-triangle, mask-like face. A National Treasure since 2014.

Hon'ami Kōetsu's Raku bowl Fujisan, white above and dark below like snow-capped Mount Fuji, is a National Treasure rarely shown at Sunritz Hattori Museum, Lake Suwa.