Muromachi

A Southern Song Jian bowl at the Museum of Oriental Ceramics in Osaka, silver spots packed tightly across both surfaces. Once owned by the regent Hidetsugu.

A Southern Song tenmoku bowl at the Fujita Museum in Osaka, its black glaze scattered with haloed spots. Alone among yohen bowls, it is mottled inside and out.

An early Muromachi-period hall in Osaka Prefecture. Its commentary misspells a founder's name there, and it lists out the nine rounds of repair since.

Built in 1442 beside the Kashii River in Izumisano, Ogami Shrine's main hall is Osaka's oldest kasuga-style hall, with a rare karahafu gable over its front eaves.

The Main Hall of Katano Tenjinja in Hirakata City, Osaka, is a cypress bark-roofed shrine building from 1402 — the oldest surviving structure in the city and a designated Important Cultural Property of Japan. Founded in 787 when Emperor Kanmu established a sacred altar honoring his father Emperor Kōnin, the shrine preserves exquisite Kamakura-period carvings and stands near the traditional site of Emperor Keitai's 6th-century Kuzuha Palace.

At Katano Tenjinsha in Hirakata, Osaka, the Hachiman auxiliary shrine's main hall is a small Muromachi one-bay nagare-zukuri, an Important Cultural Property of 1917.

The Kariteimo-do at Kanshinji Temple in Kawachinagano, Osaka, is a compact shrine hall rebuilt in 1549 and designated as an Important Cultural Property of Japan. Dedicated to Kariteimo (Hariti), the Buddhist guardian of children, this late Muromachi-period structure features elegant ikkensha kasuga-zukuri architecture with a cypress bark roof and cusped gable.

A ‘pagoda’ one story tall: Kanshin-ji’s Tatekake-tō, begun on Kusunoki Masashige’s vow and halted by his death at war in 1336, stands thatched and unfinished.

The Romon of Kyuan-ji in Ikeda, Osaka, is an early-15th-century temple gate and the oldest building on the grounds, mixing native wayo with Zen-style carving.

The Three-Tiered Hōkyōintō at Kinzenji Temple in Toyonaka City, Osaka, is an Important Cultural Property of Japan dating to 1349 during the Nanbokuchō period. Featuring an exceptionally rare triple-canopy structure carved in granite with Buddhist figures and Sanskrit seed syllables, this stone pagoda stands in a tranquil Ōbaku Zen temple originally founded by the monk Gyōki and later revived by the celebrated Tetsugen Dōkō.

The main hall of Kusabe Shrine in Sakai City, Osaka, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property dating from the Nanbokucho period (circa 1369). Notable for its unusual dual roof style — gable front and hip-and-gable rear — and richly carved kaerumata struts depicting bulls, Chinese lions, go players, and mandarin ducks, the hall preserves the artistry of medieval Izumi craftsmen. As an ancient shrine listed in the Engishiki with connections to Emperor Jimmu's legendary eastern campaign and the beloved Urashima Tarō folktale, Kusabe Shrine offers visitors over a thousand years of layered Japanese heritage.

Three main halls stand in a row at Kumata Jinja in Osaka. The Third Hall, built in 1513 in single-bay Kasuga style, ranks among the city's oldest wooden buildings.

At Kumata Shrine in Osaka's Hirano district, the central Second Hall is a three-bay nagare-zukuri building of 1513, among the city's oldest, dated by its ridge tags.

The Tahoto pagoda of Daitokuji Temple on Mt. Ushitaki in Kishiwada City, Osaka, is a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1515 during the late Muromachi period. Notable for its rare placement behind the main hall, this striking vermilion tower preserves refined medieval craftsmanship and creates an iconic autumn scene surrounded by spectacular foliage. Discover this treasure of mountain Buddhism at a sacred Shugendo training site along the Japan Heritage–certified Katsuragi Shugendo pilgrimage route.

Built in 1541, the main hall of Tajihayahime Shrine in Sakai carries carved struts and openwork brackets, among them a praying mantis on a banana plant.

Kongo-ji's National Treasure screens set a gold sun over spring hills and a silver moon over snowy pines. Explore this Muromachi masterpiece and its rare openings.

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.