Kamakura

Brushed by Shunjo a month before his death in 1227, this National Treasure at Kyoto's Sennyu-ji certifies that his disciple Shinkai inherited the master's teaching.

Preserved at Tenkyū-in, a sub-temple of Kyoto's great Myōshin-ji, the Lotus Sutra Dhāraṇī Chapter brushed in 1325 by Madenokōji Nobufusa—court noble of Emperor Go-Daigo and one of the celebrated 'Three Bō of the Later Age'—is a designated Important Cultural Property. Written just after Nobufusa returned from his daring diplomatic mission to Kamakura, the scroll bridges medieval Japanese calligraphy, devotional Buddhism, and the politics of the late Kamakura court.

Dharma words of 1179 by the Southern Song Zen monk Mi-an Xianjie at Ryokoin, Daitokuji, Kyoto, a National Treasure since 1951 and namesake of the Mittan tea room.

Discover the National Treasure calligraphy by Mugaku Sogen, a 13th-century Zen master who defied Mongol swords with poetry. Housed at Shokoku-ji's Jotenkaku Museum in Kyoto, this 1279 masterwork reveals the spiritual bond between two Zen monks across decades.

The autograph diary of Fujiwara no Teika at the Reizei Family Shiguretei Library, Kyoto, a National Treasure since 2000 and a prime source for early Kamakura history.

The seated Kukai enshrined in Toji's Mieido, made by Unkei's son Kosho in 1233; the source of later images of Kobo Daishi and a National Treasure since 2000.

Discover the five Wooden Standing Goho-jin Statues of Raigo-in, a Sennyu-ji sub-temple in Higashiyama Kyoto. These Important Cultural Property guardian deities flank what is said to be Japan's oldest Sanbo Kojin image, a deity long venerated by the imperial family for safe childbirth, and are now entrusted to the Kyoto National Museum.

Seiryo-ji's National Treasure Shaka was carved in Song China in 985 and brought to Japan by the monk Chonen. Inside lay silk organs, among the oldest known.

The principal Thousand-Armed Kannon at the centre of Sanjusangendo in Kyoto, made by Unkei's son Tankei in 1251 to 1254 and flanked by a thousand standing Kannon.

Sanjusangen-do's 1,001 standing Thousand-Armed Kannon include 124 Heian figures saved from the 1249 fire. The full set became a National Treasure in 2018.

Tobatsu Bishamonten at Kyoto's To-ji, a Tang-dynasty National Treasure that once guarded Rashomon gate. The 189.4 cm figure stands on the palms of the earth goddess.

At Kyoto's Sanjusangen-do stand the Twenty-Eight Attendants, National Treasure guardians of the Thousand-Armed Kannon: lifelike Kamakura figures carved in cypress.

The National Treasure Wind and Thunder Gods at Kyoto's Sanjusangendo are Japan's oldest such sculptures: Kamakura cypress figures with crystal eyes and bold realism.

At Kyoto's Senbon Shakado stand six unpainted wooden Kannon carved in 1224 by Jokei, Japan's only complete Kamakura set of six and now National Treasures.

The 45 rules Mongaku set in 1185 for the Jingoji temple he revived, written out by Nakayama Tadachika and stamped with Go-Shirakawa's vermilion handprints.

At Kyoto's Kitano Tenmangu, eight National Treasure scrolls of about 1219 trace Sugawara no Michizane from official to vengeful thunder god to the deity Tenjin.

A Kamakura portrait of Shinran drawn in ink lines alone by Sen'amidabutsu, son of Fujiwara no Nobuzane; one of the finest nise-e, owned by Hongwanji in Kyoto.

The forty-eight scroll illustrated biography of Honen at Chion-in, Kyoto, 548 metres long and among the largest picture scrolls; a National Treasure since 1955.

A thirteenth-century Southern Song painting of water buffalo attributed to Yan Ciping, owned by the Sen-oku Hakukokan; a National Treasure since 1957.

An unsigned National Treasure tanto by Soshu Sadamune at the Tokyo National Museum, once owned by a Karatsu lord, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and the Tokugawa shoguns.