National Treasure

A National Treasure near Tokyo: the Song-dynasty Shiji printed by Huang Shanfu, the oldest complete copy of the three-commentary edition, all 130 chapters intact.

In 1984 an Izumo hillside yielded 358 bronze swords set on edge, with 16 spearheads and 6 bells beside them. The group became a National Treasure in 1998.

At the Tokyo National Museum, the National Treasure Akikusa-mon Tsubo is a 12th-century Atsumi-ware jar incised with autumn grasses and dragonflies, found in 1942.

A National Treasure at the Tokyo National Museum: an 8.4-meter scroll of dyed papers, its 48 waka written in cursive kana, the script that became hiragana.

Held at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, Ishinpō (Nakarai Family Copy) is the oldest surviving medical encyclopedia in Japan, compiled by the court physician Tanba no Yasuyori in 984 during the Heian period. Its thirty handscrolls preserve passages from more than two hundred Chinese medical texts of the Sui and Tang dynasties, many of them otherwise lost, making this National Treasure an indispensable key to the history of East Asian medicine, language, and calligraphy.

The Uta-awase (Jikkanbon), or 'Poetry Contests in Ten Scrolls,' is Japan's oldest compiled anthology of courtly poetry matches. Held at the Sonkeikaku Bunko in Komaba, Tokyo, this National Treasure was conceived by the regent Fujiwara no Yorimichi in the 11th century to gather 46 poetry contests spanning 170 years, from the Ninna era (885-889) to 1056. Surviving as an unfinished working draft with editorial annotations and over ten distinct calligraphic hands, the five scrolls preserved by the Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation, together with companion scrolls at Yomei Bunko and the Tokyo National Museum, form one of the most important documents in classical Japanese literature.

Held at the Tokyo National Museum, this National Treasure is the oldest surviving manuscript of the Eiga Monogatari, a historical tale in kana script chronicling roughly two centuries of Heian court life centered on Fujiwara no Michinaga. Copied in the Kamakura period, the seventeen volumes pair large-format and masu-format books transmitted through the Sanjōnishi family, with a documented provenance stretching back more than five hundred years.

On the back of the Akihagi-jo handscroll lies a Tang copy of the Huainanzi's military chapter, older than the poems on its front. Both sides are National Treasures.

The Kujo family Engishiki at the Tokyo National Museum is the oldest surviving copy of Heian Japan's great legal code, valued for its red marks and verso documents.

Brushed in 1124, this is the oldest surviving Zen calligraphy. Cut in two long ago, its front half is National Treasure number one, the supreme tearoom scroll.

Held at the Tokyo National Museum, these eight National Treasure scrolls gather the ordination paper, court appointment, and Tang travel permits of the monk Enchin.

A Kamakura warrior's horse-tack set at Tokyo's Musashi Mitake Shrine, the gilt-bronze saddle inlaid with iridescent shell circles, designated a National Treasure.

At the Tokyo National Museum, this Tang scroll is the oldest surviving copy of the early Tang writer Wang Bo, brushed around 685 to 689, a decade after his death.

Two white-bronze mirrors at the Tokyo National Museum, donated to Hōryūji by Empress Kōmyō in 736. Their backs cast a Daoist realm of sacred peaks and seas.

A National Treasure at Tokyo's Eisei Bunko, the Kashiwa-mimizuku Raden Kura is a Heian saddle of black lacquer inlaid with shell, with a horned owl among oak leaves.

A katana attributed to the Kamakura smith Masamune, shortened in 1609 and gold-inlaid by appraiser Hon'ami Kotoku. Once held by warrior Jo Kagemochi, now in Ueno.

A National Treasure katana by Mitsutada of Bizen, prized for its flamboyant clove temper line. Now unsigned, it bears a gold attribution by Honami Kotoku.

A National Treasure katana attributed to Sōshū Sadamune, heir to Masamune. A tortoiseshell crest carved on its shortened tang gives the blade its lasting name.

An unsigned katana by Masamune, Japan's most celebrated swordsmith. Shortened to 64.4 cm and once owned by the Kanze Noh family, it is a National Treasure in Tokyo.

Tarōsaku Masamune is a National Treasure katana attributed to Gorō Nyūdō Masamune, the late-Kamakura master who perfected the Sōshū tradition. Named after the Tokugawa retainer Mizuno Tarōsaku Masashige, the sword passed through the shōgunate and was presented in 1633 to the Maeda lords of Kaga, who have preserved it ever since. Owned by the Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation in Tokyo, it is exhibited periodically at the Sonkeikaku Bunko Branch within the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art in Kanazawa.