Heian

The Mandala Hall of Taimadera in Nara, dated 1161 by a ridge-beam inscription and a National Treasure since 1952: a seven-bay hall wrapped around an older sanctuary.

Todaiji's Kanjinsho Sutra Repository, an early Heian azekura inside the compound Kōkei used to run the Edo rebuilding, and the 5 October day when the compound opens.

Todaiji's Hokkedo Sutra Repository, an early Heian azekura three bays square beside the Hokkedo: how it is built, how it compares with Todaiji's other log stores.

The Former Fukiji Temple Rakando, a tiny Heian hall from Kawanishi, was dismantled in 1935, chemically conserved and rebuilt at Horyuji. Its history and what to see.

Butsuryuji Sekishitsu is a stone chamber with a pyramidal roof behind the main hall in Uda City. The gorinto inside is held to mark the grave of the founder Kene.

The Horyuji Temple Kofuzo Treasury, a Heian National Treasure, keeps two storerooms under one roof with an open bay between, the original twin-storehouse form.

The Horyuji Temple Bell Tower, a mid-Heian National Treasure rebuilt after 925, is the only Heian two-level belfry left. How it differs from the repository opposite.

The Horyuji Temple Great Lecture Hall, a National Treasure rebuilt in 990 after a fire in 925, grew from 8 bays to 9. See its hidden roof frame and Yakushi Triad.

The Horyuji Temple Tsumamuro Dormitory, about 1121, is a long, narrow lesser dormitory of 27 bays beside the East Dormitory, showing how monks' quarters were ranked.

Muroji Temple Five-Storied Pagoda in Uda City, Nara, is about 16 metres tall, the smallest outdoor pagoda in Japan, with a vase on its finial in place of a flame.

Muroji Temple Golden Hall is an early Heian hall in Uda City, Nara. Its roof breaks where the worship bay rebuilt in 1672 meets the Heian core behind it.

Muroji Temple Sutra Pagoda in Uda City, Nara, is a late Heian stone pagoda on a wooded summit, hollowed for a sutra container, with coins buried beneath it.

Housed at Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara, the Kinji Raden Kenukigata Tachi is a resplendent twelfth-century ceremonial sword designated a National Treasure of Japan. Known as the Golden Sword for its near-pure gold fittings, its gilt lacquer scabbard features a playful cat pursuing sparrows through a bamboo grove, rendered in exquisite mother-of-pearl inlay and colored glass.

The Amida Triad and Attendant Child on Silk, a National Treasure preserved at Hokke-ji in Nara, is a set of three large hanging scrolls painted in the late Heian to early Kamakura period. Its dramatic contrast between the serene, frontal Amida and the animated bodhisattvas and attendant child—richly ornamented with gold pigment and cut-gold leaf—has earned it recognition as one of the finest masterpieces in the history of Japanese painting. It is shown only briefly each autumn in the Jikō-den treasure hall.

Held by Hōryū-ji in Nara, the Important Cultural Property Star Mandala on Silk is a rare Heian-period four-court circular mandala. With Shaka Kinrin at its center surrounded by the Big Dipper, Nine Luminaries, twelve zodiac signs and twenty-eight lunar mansions, it is a cosmic map where Indian, Chinese and even Greek-Babylonian astronomical traditions meet on a single piece of silk.

Woven in Tang-dynasty China in a Persian style, this Hōryū-ji National Treasure silk shows four winged-horse riders turning to shoot lions inside beaded roundels.

A National Treasure: a Southern Song edition of Ouyang Xiu's works, edited by Zhou Bida, once in the medieval Kanazawa Bunko library and nearly complete at Tenri.

Discover the Song Edition of Liu Mengde's Collected Works, a National Treasure held at Tenri University Library in Nara. Printed in 12th-century China, brought to Japan by Zen master Eisai, and once admired by shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, this rare printed book offers a remarkable glimpse into the literary exchange between Tang China and medieval Japan.

Standing over five meters tall in the inner sanctuary of Taimadera in Katsuragi, Nara, the Taima Mandala Shrine is a National Treasure built in the late 8th to early 9th century to enshrine the four-meter-square Taima Mandala tapestry. Its rare flat hexagonal form, hidden early Heian decoration in gold and silver, Kamakura-period maki-e doors bearing over 2,000 donors' names, and pedestal donated as a wish of Minamoto no Yoritomo together preserve more than a thousand years of Japanese Pure Land devotion.

Discover the Nihon Kanreiroku-shō, a precious 1147 manuscript preserved at the Sakamoto Ryūmon Bunko in Yoshino, Nara. This Important Cultural Property is the only surviving copy of an early Heian Buddhist tale collection compiled by the Gangō-ji monk Gishō, offering rare glimpses into Japan's vanished setsuwa literature.