Edo

A late Edo gatehouse on the street front of the Ebara estate in Suita, Osaka, with a stepped roof over the gateway and storehouses at each end. Seen from the road.

A late Edo farmhouse in Suita, Osaka, with a hip-and-gable roof, tsushi half-storey and 20 m front, registered in 2004 for its plan and latticed front room. Private.

A late-Edo gatehouse in Toyonaka, Osaka: a gateway with double doors and a wicket to the south, a watch room with a lookout lattice to the north. Registered 2008.

A late-Edo storehouse in Toyonaka, Osaka, moved to the rear of the homestead in late Meiji, its earthen walls left without white plaster. Registered in 2008.

The late-Edo Jozenji Temple Sutra Repository in Izumisano is a lime-plastered fireproof store under a pyramidal tile roof, facing the main hall. Registered in 2008.

Built in 1683, the seven-bay Jozenji Temple Main Hall in Izumisano adds side rooms to a standard Jodo-shu plan. Registered in 2008; interior visits by reservation.

The Jozenji Temple Priests' Quarters in Izumisano, a 14 by 16 metre late-Edo residence, keeps its smoke vent, exposed gable frame and guest porch. Registered 2008.

Built in 1797, the open Jozenji Temple Bell Tower in Izumisano has inward-leaning posts and carved baku and lions. Registered in 2008; rung on New Year's Eve.

The mid-Edo Jozenji Temple Back Gate in Izumisano is a weighty yakuimon with flanking walls, facing the old Kyoshigoe Kaido coast road. Registered in 2008.

An Edo-period katana at Sumiyoshi Taisha, Osaka, an Important Cultural Property since 1960, signed by Hankei, a Tokugawa gunsmith who became a swordsmith.

The National Treasure celadon vase 'Bansei', fired at Southern Song China's Longquan kilns, passed from an empress to a Kyoto temple before reaching Izumi, Osaka.

Osaka's Kyou Shooku library holds eleven Song-printed volumes of the Shiji jijie, the oldest Shiji commentary, a National Treasure once owned by Naito Konan.

Printed in Southern Song China in 1139, these 17 National Treasure volumes of the Maoshi zhengyi rest at Kyo-U Library in Osaka with Kanazawa Bunko seals.

The Tobiseiji Hanaike at the Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, is a National Treasure regarded as the finest surviving example of Chinese Yuan-dynasty Longquan celadon with iron-spot decoration. Standing 27.3 cm tall in the elegant yuhuchun form, twenty-one iron spots dance across its jade-green glaze. Discover this masterpiece treasured in Japan for centuries through the Konoike merchants and the famed Ataka Collection.

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.