Kamakura

Compiled in 543 and lost in China, the Yupian survives only in Tang manuscripts in Japan. This National Treasure at Ishiyama-dera is volume 27's latter half.

At Jinsho-ji in Shiga, sixteen copper trays cut with gold-and-silver openwork florals once held petals scattered at Buddhist rites. A peak of Japanese metalwork.

The Gyorekisho records the monk Enchin's 853 to 858 journey through Tang China. The Ishiyama-dera scroll is a Kamakura-period copy, an Important Cultural Property.

Held at Ishiyama-dera near Lake Biwa, this two-scroll ink-on-paper land register from the 1190s lists fields, areas, and dues from the medieval estate system.

Three ink-on-paper scrolls show how Jōrakuji in Konan, Shiga rebuilt after the 1360 lightning fire that razed it. These medieval appeals funded the temple's National Treasure main hall and pagoda.

At Ishiyama-dera in Shiga, the Shaku Makaen Ron is a rare Tang-dynasty manuscript of a commentary on the Awakening of Faith, kept in five folding booklets.

On Lake Biwa's north shore, Sugaura's villagers kept 1,281 documents recording their medieval self-rule and land disputes. They became a National Treasure in 2018.

Held at Enryaku-ji, this National Treasure is a single scroll of two Tang government permits issued to the monk Saichō in 804 and 805. Part is in his own hand.

A National Treasure at Onjo-ji near Lake Biwa, this Tang handscroll in ink line maps the deities of the Diamond World mandala, brought from China by Enchin in 855.

A Kamakura sword by the Bizen smith Kunimune, owned by Terukuni Shrine in Kagoshima, a National Treasure since 1964, returned from America in 1963.

Three handscroll letters in Nichiren's hand, kept at Myōsenji on Sado. Sent from Minobu after his 1274 pardon, they thank the followers who sustained his exile.

A fierce six-armed Aizen Myoo carved in cypress, dated to the Kamakura period, at Myoko-ji in Ojiya, Niigata. An Important Cultural Property shown only on the 26th.

At Enpukuji in Niigata, a seated Amida dated by inscription to 1214 stands beside Tamonten, a guardian raised to the national list in 2019 as part of one set.

At Jōrenji in Sanjō, Niigata, a late-Kamakura wooden Amida is the city's sole national Important Cultural Property, noted for Song-style drapery and surviving fires.

At Zendo-ji in Joetsu stands a Kamakura statue of the Pure Land master Shandao, mouth open in chant, holes inside once carrying tiny Buddhas from his lips.

Carved in 1308, the Anyo-in Hokyoin-to is Kamakura's oldest dated stone pagoda, an Important Cultural Property whose base records both its patron and its stonemason.

The main hall of Egara Tenjin in Kamakura, rebuilt in 1316 for Tsurugaoka Hachimangu and moved here in 1624, is a rare surviving shrine hall of medieval Kamakura.

The founder's pagoda at Kakuonji in Kamakura, Kanagawa, is a stone hokyointo of 1332, at the close of the Kamakura period, designated with the Daito Pagoda.

The Daito Pagoda at Kakuonji in Kamakura, Kanagawa, is a stone hokyointo of 1332, designated in 1934 with the founder's pagoda of the same year beside it.

Held at Kenchoji, this 1271 portrait of Lanxi Daolong is Japan's oldest dated Zen-master portrait. The monk inscribed it himself, and his eyes are ringed in gold.