Kamakura

Discover the 800-year-old Peacock-patterned Kei, a National Treasure at Usa Shrine in Oita. This bronze Buddhist chime embodies Japan's unique religious synthesis and Kamakura period artistry.

Discover Kujuno-to, a 13th-century Important Cultural Property stone pagoda in Usuki. This remarkable monument represents the pinnacle of Bungo stone art and served as the prototype for the region's stone tower tradition.

Discover the Usa-gū Shinryō Ōkagami, an Important Cultural Property and the sole surviving Kamakura-period manuscript documenting the sacred estates of Usa Jingū, the head shrine of over 44,000 Hachiman shrines across Japan.

An Important Cultural Property held by a private owner in Oita Prefecture, this hanging-scroll fragment is one section of the celebrated Satake-bon Sanjurokkasen-e — a 13th-century Kamakura-period scroll widely regarded as the finest surviving example of poet-portrait painting in Japan. Traditionally attributed in painting to Fujiwara no Nobuzane and in calligraphy to Gokyogoku Yoshitsune, the fragment depicts the Heian poet Fujiwara no Kanesuke (Tsutsumi Chunagon), great-grandfather of Genji author Murasaki Shikibu. It is one of 37 sections created when the original handscroll was famously divided in 1919, an event known as the Emaki Setsudan. This article guides visitors through the work's artistic significance, its remarkable scattering, and the cultural attractions of Oita that surround it.

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.