Heian
平安Browse Japan’s cultural heritage from the Heian period (794 – 1185). Filter by prefecture, type, and keyword, with concise stories, maps, and travel tips.
Two Heian-period figures at Kimiidera, second temple of the Saigoku route. Called Brahma and Indra but in bodhisattva form. On view in the Daikomyoden since 2023.
A National Treasure of Japan, the Wang Bo Collection Volume 28 is the world's oldest surviving manuscript of poetry by Tang-dynasty prodigy Wang Bo (649-676). Brought to Japan via the Kentōshi missions and once preserved at Kōfuku-ji Temple in Nara, this remarkable scroll preserves verses lost in China for over a thousand years.
A straight, double-edged ken signed Kuninaga, the Kyoto smith famed for curved tachi like the Tsurumaru. Few signed works survive; this is his only known ken.
A handscroll recording a poetry contest of 1091, named for Fujiwara no Shinshi, foster mother of Emperor Shirakawa. This Important Cultural Property is now lost.