Kamakura

A National Treasure at Jiko-ji, Saitama: thirty-three gilded Kamakura scrolls of the Lotus Sutra, one of Japan's three finest sets of decorated sutras.

The stone pagoda of thirteen storeys at Kunitsu Shrine in the Misugi hills of Tsu is a late Kamakura monument, an Important Cultural Property since 1926.

Shinran's own 1256-57 copy of 28 writings by his teacher Honen, in six volumes at Senjuji, Tsu, Mie, a National Treasure since 1953.

Three booklets of Japanese hymns by Shinran, founder of Pure Land Buddhism, partly in his own hand. Kept at Senju-ji in Mie and named a National Treasure in 1953.

Housed at Sairaiji Temple in Tsu City, Mie Prefecture, the Block-Printed Tendai Sandaibu Hokke Soki is a set of seventeen Kamakura-period woodblock-printed booklets preserving the great Tang-dynasty commentary on the Lotus Sutra by the Tiantai patriarch Zhanran (Myoraku Daishi). Designated an Important Cultural Property in 1936, this article explores its scholarly significance, the temple's storied history, and what to see in the surrounding area of Tsu.

An Important Cultural Property in Sakata: the shortest surviving Tales of Ise, with 115 episodes on gampi paper, an older text outside Teika's standard line.

The Uesugi Family Documents, 2,018 papers from the lords of Yonezawa, survive in their original folded, sealed form as Japan's first samurai National Treasure.

Volume five of Gyonen's autograph commentary on the Kegon Kumokusho, written at Todai-ji in 1286. An Important Cultural Property, now kept unseen in Yamagata.

Three Goryeo-dynasty scrolls dated 1309, owned by Uesugi Shrine in Yonezawa and designated an Important Cultural Property. Stolen in 1987, the set remains missing.

A Kamakura-period National Treasure sword signed Sanemitsu, given by Oda Nobunaga to the Tokugawa general Sakai Tadatsugu in 1582, now at the Chido Museum, Yamagata.

Housed at the Kikkawa Museum in Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, this National Treasure tachi was forged in the early Kamakura period by Tamenji of the Ko-Aoe school. Carried by Kikkou Kojiro Tomokane, ancestor of the Kikkawa clan, at the 1200 Battle of Kitsunegasaki against the Kajiwara clan — an event recorded in the Azuma Kagami — the blade survives in remarkably pristine condition together with its original black-lacquered leather-wrapped mounting.

A National Treasure at Amidaji in Hofu, this 1197 cast-iron pagoda was made for Chogen's rebuilding of Todaiji and enshrines a crystal stupa holding a Buddha relic.

A late-Kamakura Important Cultural Property in Kosuge, Yamanashi, this hall preserves rare Heian residential carpentry and shelters a hidden Nyoirin Kannon.

A 13th-century portrait of Bodhidharma in red robes, this Kōgaku-ji scroll bears an inscription by Rankei Dōryū and ranks among Japan's earliest ink paintings.

The stone thirteen-storey pagoda of Anyoji in Ritto, Shiga, made at the end of the Kamakura period, survives today with its ninth, tenth and eleventh tiers missing.

The Kasuga branch shrine at Ikuwa Shrine in Yasu, Shiga, a small nagare-style hall of the late Kamakura period, is thought to be older than the main hall itself.

The late Kamakura belfry of Ishiyama-dera in Otsu, an Important Cultural Property since 1907, with a white skirted base, bark roof and a Heian bell rung from below.

The National Treasure tahoto of Ishiyama-dera in Otsu, dated by inscription to 1194, is the oldest tahoto with a known year. Its form, Kaikei's Dainichi, visiting.

Nine-storied stone pagoda inscribed with an era name of 1256 to 1257 at Enkoji in Yasu, Shiga, rising in front of the temple's Kamakura-period main hall.

Main hall of 1257 at Enkoji in Yasu, Shiga, restored in 1956 to its rare gabled form with a long front eave that makes the temple look almost like a shrine.