Kamakura

The tahoto pagoda of Jigenin in Izumisano, Osaka, built in 1271, is a small cypress-bark National Treasure and a representative pagoda of the Kamakura period.

Raised in 1294 outside the west gate of Shitennoji Temple in Osaka, this stone torii is the oldest structure on the grounds and faces due west to the setting sun.

Ryusenji Niomon in Tondabayashi, Osaka, is dated to 1275 by ink inscriptions inside its guardian figures. It is the prefecture's only medieval eight-legged gate.

Kanshin-ji preserves a pair of gilt-bronze lotus vases, one inscribed 1330 (Gentoku 2). Late Kamakura kebyō for Shingon altar rites, Important Cultural Property.

The Two-Poem Kaishi by Fujiwara no Hidetō preserves two summer waka inscribed in 1201 by a young warrior-courtier just before his appointment to Retired Emperor Go-Toba's Bureau of Poetry. Dated precisely to the last day of the sixth month of Kennin 1, the scroll is a reference work for early Kamakura calligraphy and an Important Cultural Property since 1954.

Written 13 days before his death in exile, Emperor Gotoba's handprint-sealed will is a National Treasure and the founding document of Minase Jingu, Osaka.

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.

A ninth-century Tang manuscript of China's first dictionary survives in Osaka as a National Treasure. See its seal-script columns at the Kyou Shooku library.

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.

Cursive scrolls brushed by Shuho Myocho, founder of Daitokuji, transcribe verses by Chan master Xutang Zhiyu. A National Treasure at Osaka's Masaki Art Museum.

A Kamakura-period National Treasure tachi by Bizen master Nagamitsu, inscribed to the three Kumano deities and once owned by Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, and the shoguns.

A National Treasure mikoshi at Konda Hachimangu in Osaka, said to be a gift from Minamoto no Yoritomo, uniting lacquer, shell inlay and rare Kamakura brocade.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.