Important Cultural Property of Niigata

A 14th-century Jizo at Morin-ji, Niigata, sits with one foot lowered, ready to rise. The city's only designated sculpture, it opens to visitors two days each May.

A late-Heian Eleven-Headed Kannon at Hōden-ji in central Itoigawa, carved in the rough-hewn nata-bori style and an Important Cultural Property since 1923.

Three Heian-era Kannon at Chōkoku-ji on Sado, each cut from a single kaya block. Once mistaken for unfinished work, now prized as a complete provincial style.

A late-Heian Kannon of polychromed cypress at Honkō-ji on Sado Island, an Important Cultural Property said to have been venerated by the exiled Emperor Juntoku.

At Nō Hakusan Shrine in Itoigawa, a late-Heian cherry-wood Kannon hides a riddle: lost arms and head scars hint it began as a four-armed Eleven-Headed Kannon.

At Zendo-ji in Joetsu stands a Kamakura statue of the Pure Land master Shandao, mouth open in chant, holes inside once carrying tiny Buddhas from his lips.

On a hill above Naoetsu sits a late-Heian Dainichi Nyorai of kaya wood. Crowned and forming the wisdom-fist mudra, it was among Niigata's earliest protected images.

An early Heian seated Yakushi Nyorai, the Buddha of Healing and former principal image of Sado Kokubunji in Niigata. Carved from one block, it survived a 1529 fire.

At the heart of Niigata's moss-clad Teikan-en garden stands a Heian Medicine Buddha. Designated in 1939, this statue gave the hall and the garden their name.