Kamakura

An unsigned katana by Masamune, Japan's most celebrated swordsmith. Shortened to 64.4 cm and once owned by the Kanze Noh family, it is a National Treasure in Tokyo.

Tarōsaku Masamune is a National Treasure katana attributed to Gorō Nyūdō Masamune, the late-Kamakura master who perfected the Sōshū tradition. Named after the Tokugawa retainer Mizuno Tarōsaku Masashige, the sword passed through the shōgunate and was presented in 1633 to the Maeda lords of Kaga, who have preserved it ever since. Owned by the Maeda Ikutokukai Foundation in Tokyo, it is exhibited periodically at the Sonkeikaku Bunko Branch within the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Art in Kanazawa.

At the Tokyo National Museum, this Kamakura National Treasure sets shell cart wheels in a dense gold ground, bolder and more ordered than its Heian twin.

Discover the Matsuya Katatsuki, an Important Cultural Property of Japan — a Chinese-made shouldered tea caddy that passed through the hands of shoguns and tea masters for over 500 years. Now housed at the Nezu Museum in Tokyo's Aoyama district.

A small ink scroll the Chan master Xutang Zhiyu brushed near age eighty for a Japanese monk, slashed by a servant in 1637 and now a National Treasure in Tokyo.

Volume nine of the Yupian, a Chinese dictionary lost in China, survives in Japan as a Tang scroll. This Waseda National Treasure bears a Buddhist text dated 1021.

At the Tokyo National Museum, the gilt Dragon-Head Ewer fuses a Persian form, four engraved Pegasus, and an East Asian dragon. A National Treasure from Hōryū-ji.

Fujiwara no Teika's autograph diary of Retired Emperor Go-Toba's 1201 pilgrimage to Kumano, a National Treasure full of weary complaints and admired calligraphy.

Brushed in 1325 by the Yuan master Gulin Qingmao for his disciple Betsugen Enshi, this farewell verse, once owned by Oda Nobunaga, is now a National Treasure.

Discover Jieshi Diao Youlan Daiwo, the world's oldest complete instrumental music manuscript. This 7th-century guqin tablature, designated a National Treasure of Japan, is preserved at the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, Tokyo.

The original seventh scroll of the Ippen Hijiri-e is kept apart from its set, at the Tokyo National Museum. The 1299 silk scroll shows the dancing nembutsu in Kyoto.

Just 24.2 cm tall, this National Treasure at Tokyo's Nezu Museum is a peak of Southern Song bird-and-flower painting, attributed to Li Anzhong and shown only rarely.

Ninety-three Kasuga miracle tales on twenty silk scrolls, painted around 1309 by Takashina Takakane. Complete and never repainted, a National Treasure since 2021.

Painted by the Song court artist Li Di and dated 1197, this National Treasure pairs a white and a red cotton rose, one flower as it shifts colour across a day.

A National Treasure at Tokyo Nezu Museum, this rare Kamakura scroll shows Nachi Falls alone as a sacred deity, fusing yamato-e and Chinese ink-and-gold landscape.

A fan-shaped Song-dynasty painting of one apple branch, its blossoms ranging from bud to full bloom. Now a National Treasure at Tokyo's Ebara Hatakeyama Museum.

A National Treasure at the Tokyo National Museum: a Southern Song three-scroll set by Liang Kai of a gaunt Buddha and snowy peaks, held by the Ashikaga shoguns.

A Southern Song scroll attributed to Ma Yuan, this National Treasure shows a lone traveler hurrying under a folded umbrella as wind and rain cross towering peaks.

Housed at the Sonkeikaku Bunko in Komaba, Tokyo, the National Treasure Sanchō Shinkan brings together autograph letters by three emperors — Fushimi, Hanazono, and Go-Daigo — who lived through the turbulent transition from the late Kamakura period to the Nanboku-chō era. This article introduces one of Japan's most remarkable assemblages of imperial calligraphy and living historical voice.

Discover the Seisetsu Shōchō Bokuseki 'Yo Kantaiji Zōsu Hōgo' at Eisei Bunko in Tokyo. This Important Cultural Property is a Dharma instruction brushed by the Yuan-Chinese Zen master Seisetsu Shōchō (1274–1339), who came to Japan in 1326 and shaped early Japanese Zen. Explore its history, artistic highlights, and visitor information.