Kamakura

This National Treasure colophon by Yuan literatus Feng Zizhen praises a lost insect scroll by Song painter Yi Yuanji. Sen no Rikyu's letter saved it from being cut.

A gold lacquer box attributed to Hojo Masako hides a Tang poem in silver and holds Japan's oldest complete cosmetic set, a Kamakura-era National Treasure.

A mid-Kamakura Fukuoka Ichimonji masterpiece with a flamboyant clove-pattern hamon, given by Oda Nobunaga for the Nagashino Castle defense. Sano Art Museum, Mishima.

Carved by Unkei in 1186 for Hojo Tokimasa, five National Treasure statues at Ganjojuin Temple in Izu mark the birth of Kamakura realism. Full visiting guide inside.

Held at Hie Shrine in Numazu, Shizuoka, the Sannō Reigenki is a Kamakura-period illustrated handscroll dated 1288. Designated an Important Cultural Property, it is the oldest surviving work in its tradition, recording the shrine's founding legend and the spread of Sannō belief.

A 22.9 cm blade by Awataguchi Yoshimitsu, brought to Kaga in a 1633 bridal trousseau and offered to Shirayama Hime Shrine. Its story and where to see it.

Nichiren's autograph treatise of 1273, written in exile on Sado Island, survives at Hokekyoji Temple in Ichikawa, Chiba, designated a National Treasure in 1952.

At Jokoin near Hokekyo-ji in Ichikawa, Chiba, hangs the Water-Mirror Portrait, a strikingly lifelike Kamakura-period image of Nichiren reading the Lotus Sutra.

A late-Kamakura silk scroll at Chōtokuji in Sōsa, Chiba: a twenty-armed Fugen Enmei on four six-tusked white elephants, opened to the public one Sunday each January.

Rare amber-glazed ceramic guardian lion-dogs from medieval Seto, barely 18 cm tall, kept at Katori Jingu in Chiba and made an Important Cultural Property in 1953.

Designated in 2023, Koami-ji's 20 gilt-bronze esoteric ritual implements bear the engraved name of the monk Shinkai, linking Awa and Kanazawa across Tokyo Bay.

In 1278 a rumor of a planned debate reached Nichiren at Minobu. His 21-line autograph reply, held at Hondoji as an Important Cultural Property, captures his joy.

Naritasan Buddhist Library holds the oldest manuscript of the Sumiyoshi Monogatari, a Kamakura retelling of a lost Heian tale of a stepdaughter saved by the Kannon.

At Hondo-ji, Chiba's famed hydrangea temple, a 3.8-meter scroll holds a letter Nichiren wrote to Hiki Yoshimoto, sole survivor of his clan's massacre and the monk's devoted patron and scribe.

A gilt-bronze Jizō cast in 1309 as a memorial at Kanpuku-ji—one of four medieval Buddhas made for Katori Jingū, the earliest tied to the Mongol invasions.

Cast in gilt bronze in 1282 by the sculptor Rengan, this seated Buddha at Kanpukuji once served Katori Shrine and bears a prayer to repel the Mongol invaders.

This bronze Eleven-Headed Kannon at Kanpuku-ji in Chiba once served Katori Shrine. Cast in 1282, it carries a prayer to repel the invading Mongol fleet of 1281.

A 47-cm bronze Acala at Ketsuen-ji in Chiba, an Important Cultural Property dated to 1303. The hidden image is unveiled just one day a year, on 28 September.

This gilt-bronze Medicine Buddha at Kanpuku-ji once stood before the deity of Katori Jingu. Saved from melting in 1869, it is now an Important Cultural Property.

Newly designated in 2024, 839 documents trace one Nichiren temple across 620 years, from a monk's vow to guard his master's writings to letters from the Edo shogun's court.