Muromachi

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.

Held by the Fujita Museum in Osaka, the National Treasure Saimon Shingetsu-zu (Brushwood Gate and the New Moon) is the oldest surviving Japanese poem-painting scroll with a confirmed date, inscribed Ōei 12 (1405). Inspired by a couplet of the Tang poet Du Fu, it carries a preface by the Zen monk Gyokuen Bonpō and poems by eighteen monks of Nanzen-ji and other Five Mountains temples. This guide explores the work itself, its place at the origin of Muromachi ink painting, what to look for in the scroll, and how to plan a visit to the 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.