Heian

A National Treasure and the oldest complete Kokin Wakashu, dated 1120, at the Tokyo National Museum. Its kana sits on dyed paper printed with mica and gold foil.

A Heian National Treasure at the Okura Shukokan, Tokyo: the kana preface to the Kokin Wakashu, brushed in cursive across thirty-three dyed, decorated paper sheets.

A Heian scroll on decorated paper owned by the Maeda Ikutokukai, a National Treasure since 1951, keeping eight poems of the anthology attributed to Kinto.

The Dojigiri tachi by the Heian smith Yasutsuna at the Tokyo National Museum, a National Treasure since 1951 and one of the Five Great Swords under Heaven.

Fujiwara no Kintō's Hokuzanshō guided Heian court ritual. The Maeda Ikutokukai's National Treasure copy, twelve scrolls, is attributed to Fujiwara no Korefusa.

A complete ten-scroll Heian Lotus Sutra, the Sensōji-kyō keeps its gold-flecked paper, inlaid axles, and woven cords intact, now held at the Tokyo National Museum.

Two Kunoji-kyo scrolls at the Gotoh Museum: a Heian decorated Lotus Sutra written one chapter per person by Retired Emperor Toba's court circle around 1141.

Three Kunoji-kyo scrolls at the Tokyo National Museum, a gold-strewn Heian sutra copied by court nobles, ranked Important Cultural Property, not National Treasure.

This 11th-century National Treasure, kept for centuries at Chikubushima on Lake Biwa, copies the Lotus Sutra over paper drawn with gold-and-silver birds and flowers.

A bokuseki scroll at the Tokyo National Museum: a verse brushed by the Southern Song Zen monk Beijian Jujian in a Suzhou pavilion in 1229, an early tea scroll.

Chinese poems and prose by Fujiwara no Tadamichi, the late-Heian chancellor. Copied in 1183 as war neared Kyoto, this early album is a key witness to his writing.

Preserved at Waseda University Library in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward, this National Treasure is the sole surviving volume of a lost 100-volume Chinese Confucian commentary. A Tang-dynasty handscroll that reached Japan in the Nara period, it bears the personal library seal of Empress Kōmyō. Discover its extraordinary journey, scholarly importance, and how to experience it today.

Held at the Sonkeikaku Bunko in Tokyo, this National Treasure comprises four late-Heian manuscripts of the Ruijū Kokushi—Sugawara no Michizane's 205-volume classified history completed in 892 under Emperor Uda. Covering auspicious omens, earthquakes, and Buddhist rites, they are vital for reconstructing the lost Nihon Kōki and for modern earthquake research.

The Gotoh Museum in Setagaya, Tokyo, preserves the National Treasure 'Six Patriarch Shouldering a Pole,' a thirteenth-century Southern Song ink painting bearing the seal of the painter Chokuō. Rendered in the delicate mōryōga style with washes of pale ink and selective accents of dark ink, the scroll depicts Huineng, the Sixth Patriarch of Chan Buddhism, at the life-changing moment he hears the Diamond Sutra. An inscription by Chan master Enkei Kōmon dates the work with unusual precision. Discover the history, artistic value, and visiting information for this masterpiece.

Held by the Nezu Museum in Tokyo's Minami-Aoyama district, Fishing Village at Sunset (attributed to Muqi) is a National Treasure and one of the supreme achievements of Southern Song ink painting. A scene from the famous Eight Views of the Xiao and Xiang Rivers, it bears the seal of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu and is exhibited only rarely, every few years.

Housed at the Nara National Museum, the Gyūhi Keman are a set of thirteen fan-shaped Buddhist pendant garlands of ox-hide, cut in openwork and painted on both faces with kalavinka and hōsōge arabesques. Originally preserved at Tō-ji Temple in Kyoto, they date to the 11th century and are the oldest surviving leather keman of this form in Japan.

The Kannonji and Shikiji finds from Tokushima, designated in 2015, are ancient wooden tablets and pottery from the Awa provincial office, with an Analects text.

Discover the Sankozuka-ken at Nikko Futarasan Shrine, an Important Cultural Property pairing a Heian-period blade with a late-Kamakura bronze hilt shaped like an esoteric Buddhist three-pronged vajra. One of very few such ritual swords surviving with both blade and hilt intact, it embodies the syncretism of Shinto and Buddhism in medieval Nikko, displayed at the Treasure Hall by Lake Chuzenji.

Hidden in a natural stone cavern in Utsunomiya City, Tochigi, the Ōya Magaibutsu is a remarkable group of ten Buddhist images carved directly into the cliff face of Ōya-ji Temple. Featuring a 4-meter Thousand-Armed Kannon and three Buddhist triads, it became the first cultural property in Japan to be designated both a Special Historic Site and an Important Cultural Property.

An early Heian three-storied pagoda at Taimadera, Nara, a National Treasure since 1952: 24.1 m tall, eight spire rings, and 7th-century reliquaries found in 2017.