Edo

Calligraphy by the Southern Song Chan master Xutang Zhiyu on wax-coated paper, an Important Cultural Property prized as a tea-room scroll, privately held in Tokyo.

A short sword whose tang records its maker's own age. Umetada Myoju forged it at sixty-one in 1618, late in a career that helped open the new-sword era.

A pair of gold-ground folding screens at the Tokyo National Museum: a Namban ship unloading cargo, and a procession winding toward a hilltop Christian church.

Discover the Seto Mimitsuki Mizusashi, a Registered Art Object held at Tokyo National Museum. This Edo-period (late 17th to 18th century) water jar, made at the historic Seto kiln, features a cylindrical body with charming bamboo-shaped handles, an iron glaze layered with poured ash glaze, and a black lacquered wooden lid. Explore its quiet beauty, historical significance, viewing highlights, and visitor information for the museum in Ueno Park, Tokyo.

Discover the Tekagami (292 Leaves), a registered work of art at Tokyo National Museum. Compiled in 1861 by Edo Shogunate official painter Sumiyoshi Hirotsura, this rare album contains 292 fragments of Japan's finest ancient calligraphy spanning a thousand years from Nara to Edo periods.

A pair of six-panel folding screens by Shōkadō Shōjō, one of the Three Great Calligraphers of the Kan'ei Era, featuring delicate four-seasons flower-and-bird paintings interwoven with sixteen scattered waka poems on a shimmering gold-and-silver ground.

Forty-one landscape panels by Sakaki Hyakusen, a pioneer of Japan's Nanga school, painted in 1751 near Nara and now on deposit at the Nara National Museum.

An Important Cultural Property by Ogata Kenzan: a half-cylinder tea bowl with an iron-brown waterfall on one side and a poem on the other, both from his own brush.

A National Important Cultural Property held privately in Nara Prefecture, this set of six color-on-paper fusuma panels was painted in 1751 by Sakaki Hyakusen (1697–1752), one of the four founding figures of Japanese Nanga literati painting, just one year before his death. Depicting Mount Tiantai's legendary stone bridge and its abode of five hundred arhats, the work is part of the 41-panel cycle known as the Former Jimon-in Wall Paintings — the largest surviving program of architectural painting by Hyakusen and a milestone in the adaptation of Chinese Southern School painting to Japanese fusuma format.

Discover the Gojō Family Documents, an Important Cultural Property in Yame, Fukuoka. This collection of 369 documents across 17 scrolls preserves imperial letters from the Southern Court era, offering a rare window into Japan's dramatic Nanbokuchō period.

The Iino Family Documents, 1,683 papers from the priests of Iino Hachimangu in Iwaki, Fukushima, begin in 1204; 210 medieval pieces record estate rule.

Founded by the Matsudaira ancestors of the Tokugawa, Iga Hachimangu in Okazaki keeps a polychrome early-Edo shrine whose main hall Ieyasu built in 1611.

Explore the Saimon-den (Ritual Gate Hall) and East-West Corridors of Ōagata Shrine in Inuyama, Aichi — a nationally designated Important Cultural Property rebuilt in 1661 by Tokugawa Mitsutomo, featuring a unique four-pillar gate design with symmetrical cypress-bark corridors.

Discover the Haiden (Worship Hall) of Owari Okunitama Shrine, an Important Cultural Property from the early Edo period. Featuring the distinctive Owari-style layout, cypress bark roof, and the famous Hadaka Matsuri, this Inazawa shrine offers a unique cultural experience near Nagoya.

The Rōmon Gate of Owari Ōkunitama Shrine (Konomiya) in Inazawa, Aichi Prefecture, is a designated Important Cultural Property of Japan that uniquely combines Muromachi-period lower architecture with an Edo-period upper story rebuilt in 1646. Discover this magnificent gateway to a shrine with over 1,300 years of history as the grand provincial shrine of the Owari region, famed for its dramatic Hadaka Matsuri (Naked Festival).

On the old Chuma road in Asuke, Toyota City, the Suzuki family compound preserves sixteen buildings and their land, a great merchant household across Edo and Meiji.

Discover the Mausoleum of Genkei-kō, the final resting place of Tokugawa Yoshinao, founder of the Owari Domain. This Important Cultural Property in Seto, Aichi features rare Confucian-style architecture designed by Chinese émigré Chen Yuanyun, with seven designated structures set amid ancient cedar forests.

Discover the Koshoji Five-Story Pagoda, a nationally designated Important Cultural Property built in 1808. Located in Nagoya's Yagoto district, this elegant late Edo-period wooden pagoda is the only one remaining in the entire Tokai region.

Discover Jo-an, one of only three National Treasure teahouses in Japan. Built in 1618 by tea master Oda Uraku, younger brother of Oda Nobunaga, this masterpiece of tea ceremony architecture awaits in the serene Uraku-en Garden beside Inuyama Castle, Aichi Prefecture.

The Former Shoden-in Shoin in Urakuen, Inuyama, Aichi, built around 1618 as a retreat for the tea master Oda Urakusai. It stands beside the Jo-an teahouse.