Kamakura

Explore the silk portrait of Hojo Sanetoki at Shomyo-ji, Yokohama — a rarely-shown National Treasure depicting the Kamakura samurai-scholar who founded Kanazawa Bunko, Japan's oldest samurai library.

Five Kamakura-period silk court robes and lacquered arms, kept together at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu. Complete court dress of that age survives almost nowhere else.

Sacred arms offered to the war god Hachiman at Tsurugaoka Hachimangū: a vermilion bow, arrows, and gold-ground quivers and swords inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

Issued in January 1294 by Hōjō Sadatoki, ninth regent of the Kamakura shogunate, this ink-on-paper edict regulated the conduct of monks at Engaku-ji and other Zen monasteries. Designated an Important Cultural Property, it offers a rare window into the close ties between samurai power and Zen Buddhism in medieval Kamakura.

Preserved at Kenchō-ji in Kamakura, the National Treasure Daikaku Zenji Bokuseki (Hōgo Kisoku) is a pair of hanging scrolls written by Rankei Dōryū, the Chinese Chan master invited from Southern Song to found Japan's first pure Zen monastery in 1253. One scroll admonishes monks to devote themselves to practice; the other lays out the monastery's daily rules in remarkable detail. Executed in a calligraphic style derived from the Southern Song master Zhang Jizhi, the scrolls are both an unparalleled document of Kamakura-era Zen and a work of art.

Preserved at Tsurugaoka Hachimangu Shrine in Kamakura, this National Treasure tachi was forged by Masatsune of the Ko-Aoe school in Bitchu Province during the Kamakura period. Offered to the shrine in 1736 by the eighth Tokugawa shogun, Yoshimune, at the rededication of its halls, the sword is admired for its distinctive chirimen-hada steel and graceful curvature, and is shown with its ornate silk-wrapped mounting in periodic special exhibitions at the Kamakura Museum of National Treasures.

Kōtoku-in's Great Buddha is a bronze Amida cast from 1252, about 11.3 m tall and 121 tonnes. Once housed in a hall, it has stood outdoors for over five centuries.

Discover the Bokuzeisho Volume 23 Fragment, an Important Cultural Property held by Shomyo-ji Temple and preserved at Kanagawa Prefectural Kanazawa Bunko. Explore how this rare divination manuscript reveals the scholarly world of medieval Japanese Buddhist learning.

A National Treasure bell cast in 1255 for Kamakura's Kencho-ji. Its inscription names patron Hojo Tokiyori, abbot Rankei Doryu, and founder Mononobe Shigemitsu.

Engaku-ji's Ogane, cast in 1301, is Kamakura's largest temple bell and a National Treasure. A steep stone staircase climbs to its hilltop belfry and Mt. Fuji views.

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.

Two sheets from 1254 on which Nichiren drew Aizen and Fudo as he saw them in visions, kept at Myohonji in Kyonan, Chiba. Not on regular display; ask before visiting.

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.

A Kamakura painting of the six-armed, vermilion Aizen Myoo on a treasure vase, 136 cm tall, kept at Chotokuji in Sosa, Chiba, and shown once a year in late January.

A pair of Yuan-dynasty folding screens of the sixteen arhats, attributed to Zhao of Ningbo and owned by Hokekyoji in Ichikawa; kept at the Tokyo National Museum.